toLcbU 


Trant 

Trade  Unions,  Their  ^rigins  and 
Objects 


^i 


Trade  Unions 


HEIR   ORIGIN   AND   OBJECTS,   INFLUENCE   AND' 

EFFICACY. 


By   WILLIAM   TRANT,    M.  A. 


JfT 


WITH     AN     APPENDIX     SHOWING     THK 


History   and   Aims  ® 

!  ® 

I  ® 


(\MERICAN   FEDERATION  OF  LABOR.! 


TENTH   EDITION. 


PRICE  _  -  _  TEN   CENTS. 


Published  by  thk  American  Federation  ok  Labor, 

Samuel  Gompers,  President, 

Washington.  D.  C. 

I'i02. 


American   Federation  of   Labcjr 

ENDEAVORS  TO  UNITE  • " 

ALL  CLASSES  OF  \VAGE-WORKE:i^^ 
UNDER  ONE  HEAD,  THROUC'^ 
THEIR  SEVERAL  ORGANIZATIOr'^, 
TO  THE  END     ...  ^ 

1.  That  class,  race,  creed,  political  and  trade  prejudices  may  be  abolished.        | 

2.  That  support,  moral  and  financial,  may  be  given  to  each  other.  *  - 

It  is  composed  of  International,  National,  State,  Central  and  Local  Unions,  representing  t\^° 
great  bulk  c  f  organized  labor  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

It  gi<  es  to  any  organization  joining  its  ranks  recognition  in  the  labor  field  in  all  its  phases. 

It  se'cures  in  cises  of  boycotts,  strikes,  lockouts,  attentive  hearing  before  all  affiliated  be(?ir  ' 
and  it  renders  financial  aid  to  the  extent  of  its  ability. 

It  is  not  a  moneyed  institution.  It  allows  each  organization  to  control  its  own  funds  ;  to  esta\°' 
lisli  and  expend  ils  own  benefits  without  let  or  hinorance.  I 

It  aims  to  allow  in  the  light  of  experience — the  utmost  liberty  to  each  organization  in  the  cor' 
luct  of  its  own  affairs  consistent  with  the  generally  understood  principles  of  LABOR. 

It  establishes  iuter-comniunication,  creates  agitation,  and  is  in  direct  and  constant  correspon 
ence  with  a  c  rps  of  representative  organizers  th'oughout  the  country.  r    > 

It  watches  the  interests  of  the  workers  in  National  Congress;  it  endorses  and  protests  ii|  tl^ 
name  of  I  ABOR,  and  has  secured  vast  relief  from  burdensome  laws  and  government  officials. 

It  is  in  communication  with  reformers  and  sympathizers  in  almost  all  classes,  giving  inform*' 
tion  and  enlisting  their  co-operatic n. 

It  a  semblfs  once  a  year  all  classes  oi  wage-earnejs,  in  convention,  to  exchange  ideaA  at' 
methods,  to  cultivate  mutual  interest,  to  secure  united  action,  to  speak  for  L.4.BOR,  to  announce  '" 
the  world  the  burdens,  aims  and  hopes  of  the  workers. 

It  asks— yea  demands— the  cooperation  of  all  wage-workers  who  tielieve  in  the  principle  ^* 
UNITY,  and  that  there  is  something  better  in  life  than  long  hours,  low  wages,  lack  of  employmenj' 
and  all  that  these  imply.  | 

Its  Existence  is  Based  Upon      i 
Economic  Law.     .  | 

TO  WIT:  i 

•That  no  particular  trade  can  long  maintain  wages  above  the  common  level.  I 

That  to  maintain  high  wages  all  trades  and  callings  must  be  organized.  I 

That  lack  of  organization  among  the  unskilled  viially  affects  the  organized  skilled.  ( 

That  general  organization  of  skilled  and  unskilled  can  only  be  accomplished  by  united  actioif' 
'.•Larefore,  FEBER4TION.  i 

AGAIN  I 

That  no  one  particular  locality  can  long  maintain  high  wages  above  that  of  others.  | 

That  to  maintain  h'gh  wages  all  localities  must  be  orgatiized. 

That  this  can  best  be  d->ne  bv  the  maintenance  of  Nationalard  International  Unions. 

That  any  local  union  which  refuses  to  so  affiliate  is  inconsistent,  non-union,  and  shtu'd  be  "  1(' 
t'.Due." 

That  each  national  or  international  union  must  be  protected  in  its  particular  field  against  riva 
and  seceders.     Therefore  FEDERATION. 

That  the  history  of  the  labor  movement  demonstrates  the  necessity  of  a  union  of  individual 
a  jd  that  logic  implies  a  union  of  unions— FEDERATION. 

Fraternally, 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS,  Prestdent. 
FRANK  MORRISON,  Secretary. 

Headquarters:  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


Trade  Unions 


THEIR   ORIGIN   AND   OBJECTS,   INFLUENCE  AND 

EFFICACY. 


By  WILLIAM   TRANT,   M.  A. 


WITH    AN    APPENDIX    SHOWING    THE 


HisTOHY   AND   Aims 


AMERICAN   FEDERATION  OF  LABOR. 


TENTH   EDITION. 


PRICE  -  -  -  TEN  CENTSi 


Published  by  thk  Amkrican  Federation  ok  Labor, 

Samuel  Gompers,  President, 

Washington.  D.  C. 


PREFACE. 


To  the  officers  and  members  of  all  Trade  and  Labor 
Unions,  and  to  that  much  abused  but  serviceable  class  of 
Humanitarians — the  despised  "Labor  Agitators" — this  pamphlet 
is  respectfully  dedicated,  with  the  hope  that  a  perusal  of  its 
pages  may  make  the  subject  of  Trade  Unions  better  understood 
and  more  thoroughly  appreciated. 

The  five  opening  chapters  of  this  pamphlet  are  condensed 
from  the  prize  essay  on  "Trade  Unions,"  written  by  Mr.  Wm. 
Trant,  who  secured  for  it  the  /^50  prize  offered  a  few  years  ago 
by  the  Trade  Union  Congress  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  a  standard 
work,  prepared  after  considerable  research,  and  it  has  been  care- 
fully edited  to  suit  American  conditions. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor. 


TRADB    UNIONS. 

THEIR   ORIGIN    AND   OBJECTS,    INFLUENCE   AND 

EFFICACY. 

Bv  William  Trant. 


CHAPTER   I.— Historical  Sketch. 

Serfdom — Emancipation — The  Domestic  System — The  "Capitalistic  Craftsman" — The  Working Clsiss 
The  First  Crisis — The  Statutes  of  Laborers — The  Black  Death — High  Wages,  Cheap  Food,  and 
Short  Hours — Combination — Guilds — The  First  Union — Rise  of  the  Artisan — The  Lollards— An- 
tagonism of  the  AVealthy — The  Peasants'  Revolt — Oppression  of  the  Working  Classes — Debase- 
ment of  the  Coin — Confiscation  of  the  Guilds — Combination  Laws — The  Poor  Laws — Continued 
Decline  of  the  Workman — His  Miserable  Condition  in  the  Xineteenth  Century — Trade  Unions 
Their  Original  Rules — Combinations  of  Employers. 


Those  who  ao  often  speak  of  the  "  wel- 
fare of  the  State ' '  would  do  well  to  re- 
member that  the  phrase  has  never  yet 
meant  the"  welfare  of  the  people."  The 
' '  good  old  times ' '  were  good  only  for  a 
small  portion  of  the  community,  and  al- 
though year  after  year  has  shown  constant 
improvement,  yet  that  amelioration  has 
been  very  slow  and  lamentably  imperfect. 
Aristotle  says,  in  his  ''Politics,"  that  the 
best  and  most  perfect  commonwealth  is  one 
which  provides  for  the  happiness  of  all  its 
members.  The  fact  that  the  great  philoso- 
pher conceived  such  a  noble  sentiment  so 
long  ago  is  in  itself  remarkable  ;   but  ad- 

\  miration    for    his    wisdom    is    somewhat 
dimini.shed  when  it  is  found  that,  "although 
artisans  and  trades  of  every  kind  are  ueees- 
k ,  sary  to  a  State,  they  are  not  parts  of  it," 
T  and  their  happin&ss,  therefore,  is  of  a  kind 
^A  with   which  the  "best    and   most  perfect 
jV^l  commonwealth"  has  no  concern  whatever. 
'Y       "The  same  law  must  be  for  all  classes 
J  of  my  subjects,"  said  Henry  II.,  but  la- 
^  borers   were  not   considered  subjects.     So 
\  late  as  Elizabeth's  time  they  were  spoken 
of    (by    Shakespeare)     as     "fragments." 
Even  the  Magna  Charta,  of  which  English- 
men are  so  justly  proud,  referred  but  to  a 
moiety  of  the  two  millions  of  persons  who 
inhabiteti  England  at  the  time  of  its  pro- 
VJ  mulgation.     It  affected  freemen  alone,  and 
y  there  is  little  douljt  that  nearly  one-half  of 
the  entire  population  was  then  in  a  state 
of  slavery  so  a])ject   that,  in  the  language 
of  the  old  law-writers,  "the  villein*  knew 
not  in  the  evening  what  he  was  to  do  in 


\ 


*  "Villein"  was  a  term  to  denote  the  serf  or 
worker  ir.  those  days. 


INST.  INDUS.  REL. 


the  morning,  but  was  bound  to  do  what- 
ever he  was  commanded."  He  was  liable 
to  beating,  he  was  incapable  of  acquiring 
property  for  himself,  and  any  he  got  be- 
came his  master's  ;  he  could  be  separated 
from  his  wife  and  children,  and  sold  to  an- 
other lord,  or  he  ceuld  be  passed  with  the 
land  upon  which  he  lived,  as  if  he  had 
been  a  chattel  attached  to  it. 

Various  causes  noiselessly  and  gradually 
effaced  this  miserable  condition,  though  at 
a  very  slow  rate.  "Faint  traces  of  it," 
says  Lord  Macaulay,  "were  detected  liy  the 
curious,  so  late  as  the  days  of  the  Stuarts  ; 
nor  has  that  institution [villenage],  even  to 
this  hour,  been  abolished  by  statute." 
From  the  earliest  times,  however,  serfdom 
in  England  bore  within  it  the  germs  of  its 
own  destruction.  The  lord  might  enfran- 
chise hLs  villein,  or  the  latter  could  pur- 
chase his  freedom.  If,  too,  the  slave  es- 
caped to  some  town,  and  remained  there 
unclaimed  a  year  and  a  day,  he  became 
a  free  man.  There  were  also  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  proving  the  villenage,  the  onus 
of  which  proof  ahvaj'S  lay  with  the  lord, 
while  in  all  disputes  on  the  sulyect  the  pre- 
sumption of  law  was  in  favor  of  liberty. 

"Thus,"  writes  Creasy,  "while  at  the 
period  when  we  first  can  assert  the  common 
law  of  the  complete  English  nation  to  com- 
mence, we  find  this  species  of  slavery  ao 
widely  established  in  this  country,  we  also 
find  the  law  for  its  gradual  and  ultimately 
certain  extinction."  The  Church,  too,  dis- 
countenanced slavery.  Theodore  denied 
Christian  burial  to  the  kidnappers,  and 
prohibited  the  sale  of  children  by  their 
parents  after  the  age  of  seven.  Violation 
prohibition  was  punished  with  excom" 


mnnication.  The  murder  of  a  slave  by  his 
owner,  though  no  crime  in  the  eye  of  the 
State,  hecanie  a  sin  for  which  penance  was 
exacted  by  the  Church.  The  shive.s  attached 
to  Church  ])roperty  were  freed,  and  manu- 
mission became  frequent  in  wills,  as  the 
clergy  taught  that  such  a  gift  was  a  boon 
to  the  boul  of  the  dead. 

Wit^  half  a  nation  iu  slavery  there 
could  ba  uo  "  working  class,"  as  the  term 
is  generally  understood.  The  wealthy 
kept  domestic  artisans  amongst  their  ser- 
vants, and  the  wants  of  the  nobles  were 
almost  entirely  supplied  by  their  retainers. 
The  villeins  tilled  the  soil,  while  the  men 
in  towns  worked  on  what  is  now  called  the 
"domestic  system."  The  factory  system 
and  the  capitalist  employer  were  not  yet 
known,  and  the  employers  of  labor  were 
those  who  provided  materials  which  they 
hired  men  to  work  into  the  articles  required. 
The  glazier  glazed,  but  did  not  find  the 
glass ;  the  blacksmith  forged,  but  did  not 
find  the  iron.  There  was,  therefore,  very 
little  hiring  of  laborers.  "The  capitalist 
employer,"  says  Profes.sor  Thorold  Rogers 
in  "Six  Centuries  of  Labor  and  Wages," 
"the  first  middle  man,  is  entirely  un- 
known till  the  seventeenth  century  ;  and 
the  capitalist  purchaser  of  raw  materials, 
the  second  middle  man,  is  later  still  in 
the  economy  of  society. 

At  a  very  early  date,  however,  craftsmen 
became  the  chief  purchasers  of  the  materials 
on  which  they  worked,  and  the  "capitalist 
artisan  "  developed  considerably  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  London  tailors,  even 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  were  the  great 
importers  of  woolen  cloths,  and  thire  can 
be  no  doubt  that  at  this  time  many  of  the 
craftsmen  traded  in  the  raw  material  which 
they  worked.  As,  however,  the  trades  be- 
came more  prosperous,  and  the  poor,  who 
flocked  to  the  towns,  more  numerous,  the 
traders  gradually  ceased  working  at  their 
craft,  and,  confining  themselves  to  trading, 
left  the  manual  labor  to  their  less  fortunate 
companions.  That  is  to  say,  a  class  of 
small  dealers  in  raw  material  sprang  into 
existence.  The  distinction  of  classes  be- 
came marked.  The  shoemaker  soon  learnt 
to  look  down  upon  the  cobbler,  and  the 
leather  merchant  to  despise  the  shoemaker. 

The  "full  history  ot  England  as  a  na- 
tion," it  is  agreed,  begins  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.,  and  it  is  thenabouts  that  we 
find  anything  like  a  working  class  gathering 
itself  togethej.  In  the  three  centuries 
which  immediately  succeeded  the  Norman 
Conquest,  the  commerce  of  England  was 
greatly  extended.  Foreign  commodities 
were  "introduced  in  abundance,  and  na- 
tive manufactures  established  and  im- 
proved." This  naturally  attracted  to  the 
towns  such  serfs  as  wished  for  liberty, 
and  thus  we  find  springing  up  in  the  towns 
a  class  of  men  jwssessed  of  personal  free- 


dom, but  destitute  of  property  and  land. 
These  were  the  forerunners  of  the  wage- 
working  class. 

The  Statute  of  Laborers  (23  Ed.  III.,  c.  1) 
clearly  shows  the  existence  of  a,  wage-re- 
ceiving class,  the  remuneration  being  about 
one  penny  a  day  in  addition  to  food  ;  and 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  sum  men- 
tioned was  sufficient  to  purchase  a  couple 
of  fowls  or  the  fifth  part  of  a  sheep,  it  is 
evident  that  the  recipients  were  well  off  as 
things  went.  Indeed,  the  statute  refeired 
to  was  passed  because,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  landholders,  the  wages  of  agricultural 
laborers  had  become  "exctssive."  Here 
was,  in  fact,  the  first  "crisis  "on  record 
between  employers  and  employed  in  Eng- 
land. The  depopulation  (amounting,  it  is 
said,  to  one-third  of  the  nation)  which  fol- 
lowed the  great  plague  of  134P,  the  "Bls.ck 
Death,"  caused  a  natural  rise  in  the  price 
of  labor.  Whole  villages  died  or.t ;  houses 
fell  in  ruins ;  entire  flocks  perished  for 
want  of  herdsmen ;  and  the  corn  crop 
perished  for  wants  of  reapers.  The  clergy 
even  raised  their  fees  for  masses  and  prayers, 
because  fewer  persons  were  able  to  afibrd 
such  luxuries  ;  merchants  and  tradesmen 
took  advantage  of  the  small  supply  of  wares 
to  raise  their  prices  ;  and  in  like  manner 
the  workmen  endeavored  to  profit  }>j  the 
dearth  of  labor,  by  refusing  to  work  except 
at  enormous  prices.  The  wealthy  class 
objected  to  all  this,  and  the  purpose  of  the 
Act  referred  to  was  to  fix  the  wages,  by  re- 
quiring all  laborers,  etc.,  to  accept  the  same 
remuneration  as  had  been  customary  before 
the  plague.  Any  lord  of  the  manor  pay- 
ing more  was  to  be  mulcted  in  trtlJe 
damages;  food  was  to  be  sold  at  reasocf.b'.e 
prices;  and  alms  were  forbidden  to  ab]e- 
bodieel  laborers.  The  statute,  however, 
seems  to  have  been  elisregarded ;  ard  two 
years  later  we  find  the  master  shearmen  of 
London  complaining  to  the  city  authorities 
that  they  could  not  get  men  at  the  same 
wages  as  formerly,  and  that  the  workmen 
also  refused  to  work  unless  they  were  paid 
by  the  piece. 

There  had,  indeed,  already  been  some- 
thing of  the  nature  of  a  "strike,"  and  it 
was,  therefore,  ordered  that  any  lurther 
disputes  ehould  be  settled  by  the  warden 
of  the  trade.  If  a  workman  did  not  sub- 
mit, he  was  to  be  punished  by  the  mayor 
and  aldermen.  All,  however,  was  of  no 
avail,  and  what  is  also  surprising  is  the 
obtuseness  that  could  for  a  moment  im- 
agine the  Act  could  be  enforced.  The 
statute  had  to  be  enforceii  by  the  Manor 
Court,  and  that  court  depended  for  eCi- 
ciency  upon  the  good  will  existing  between 
landlord  and  tenant;  a^'d  where  statute 
prices  were  paid  the  difference  was  made 
up  in  some  other  way.  Professor  IJogers 
has  recently  bro\ight  to  light  some  curious 
instances  of  evasions  of  the  Act,  by  the 


alteratious  in  the  record  of  the  court  from 
the  price  actually  paid  to  the  statute  prices; 
alterations  evidently  made  to  technically 
conform  to  the  law,  while  actually  evading 
it.  At  last  the  peasants  combined  to  resist 
the  law.  They  organize  tliemselves,  and 
they  subscribe  considerable  sums  of  money 
for  the  defence  and  protection  of  serfs, 
which,  it  has  been  suggested,  may  have  in- 
cluded the  payment  of  fines.  In  point  of 
fact,  here  is  a  rudimentary  trade  union  to 
resist  an  unjust  law  and  to  secure  higher 
wages.  A  similar  statute  to  the  one  above 
quoted  was  passed  in  1362,  when,  after  a 
violent  tempest,  a  royal  order  was  issued 
that  the  materials  for  roofing  and  the  wages 
of  tilers  should  not  be  enhanced  by  reason 
of  the  damage  done  by  the  storm.  An  ad- 
ditional statute,  with  a  similar  object,  was 
passed  the  following  year. 

From  these  sources,  and  from  the  indus- 
trious researches  of  Professor  Thorold 
Eogers,  we  learn  what  were  the  wages 
earned  at  the  period  before  the  rise  set  in. 
It  will  be  sufficient  to  say  here  that  they 
were  not  satisfactory,  though  not  so  meagre 
as  has  been  generally  supposed.  The  Acts, 
however,  were  disregarded,  the  men  refus- 
ing to  work  for  less  than  double  or  treble 
the  sums  prescribed  by  statute.  For  about 
a  dozen  years  wages  continued  to  rise,  un- 
til in  1363  the  prosperity  of  the  peasantry 
was  so  great  that  an  Act  (37  Edward  III., 
c.  14)  was  passed  enjoining  carters,  plough- 
men, and  farm  servants  generally,  not  to 
eat  or  drink  "excessively,"  or  to  wear  any 
cloth  except  "blanket  and  russet  wool  of 
twelvepence, "  while  domestic  servants  were 
declared  to  be  entitled  to  only  one  meal  a 
day  of  flesh  and  fish,  and  were  to  content 
themselves  at  other  meals  with  "milk, 
butter,  cheese,  and  other  such  victuals."* 
These  restrictions  were  as  futile  as  those 
which  preceded  them,  and  it  would  be 
foolish  to  weary  the  reader  with  an  ac- 
count of  similar  legislation  effected  during 
the  succeeding  century,  in  spite  of  which, 
however,  wages  constantly  advanced  ;  and 
we  find  an  Act  pa«se<l  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.  stating  that  laborers  would 
not  work  except  at  a  rate  "much  more 
than  hath  been  given  to  such  servants  and 
laborers  in  any  time  past."  Indeed,  they 
were  the  halcyon  days  of  the  British 
laborer.  He  was  much  better  off  then  than 
he  is  now.  The  rise  in  the  wages  of  labor 
after  the  famine  of  Edward  II.  was  as  much 
SB  from  twenty-three  per  cent,  to  thirty 
per  cent. ;  and  after  the  Black  Death  in  the 
following  reign  the  average  advance  was 
upwards  of  fifty  i)er  cent.  more.  The 
masons  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  advance 
of  sixty  per  cent.,  the  reason  of  which  will 
be  given  immediately,     tlreat,  too,  as  was 

*In  Scotland,  at  a  much  later  date,  fariu  labor- 
ers complained  that  they  had  to  eat  salmon  more 
than  four  days  a  week. 


the  rise  in  wages,  there  was  no  correspond- 
ing rise  in  the  price  of  provisions.  Every- 
thing the  laborer  needed  was  as  cheap  as  it 
ever  had  been,  his  laOor  was  rising  in  value 
week  by  week,  and  he  worked  only  eight 
hours  a  day.  Never  before  or  since  have 
the  workingmen  of  England  been  so  well 
off  as  far  as  material  comforts  were  con- 
cerned, and  this  halcyon  period  lasted  un- 
til 1390. 

It  will  be  necessary  further  on  to  trac« 
the  reasons  of  the  downward  tendency  that 
began  to  show  itself  in  that  year;  and  to 
show  how  it  was  that  laborers  who  had  be- 
come masters  of  the  situation  were  again 
degraded  to  the  level  of  serfs.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  inquire  whether  any 
"union"  or  "combination"  had  giren  the 
men  strength  to  resist  the  injustice  which 
the  Acts  just  mentioned  inflicted  upon  them 
by  curbing  the  "aspiring  exertions  of  indus- 
try and  independency."  Materials  upon 
which  to  found  a  decided  opinion  are,  unfor< 
tunately,  very  scarce.  One  thing,  however, 
is  certain.  The  people  of  England  had  lon| 
been  familiar  with  the  principle  of  associa- 
tion for  trade  and  other  purposes.  Even  s« 
early  as  the  time  of  Canute,  associations 
under  the  name  of  "guilds"  were  estab- 
lished for  religious  purposes.  Similar 
brotherhoods  afterwards  developed  inti» 
combinations  of  merchants  for  mutual  as- 
sistance and  protection,  and  were  folio wect 
in  the  fourteenth  century  by  "craft-guilds," 
which,  as  their  name  implies,  were  unions 
of  handicraftsmen — the  principal  guild  be- 
ing that  of  the  weavers.  The  very  essence 
of  the  guilds  was  mutual  support,  mutual 
protection,  and  mutual  responsibility.  They 
were,  indeed,  the  first  friendly  societies. 
These  guilds  gradually  extended  their  influ- 
ence beyond  thelimitsof  particular  trades, 
and  ultimately  became  far  more  powerful 
than  the  municipal  corporations  of  the 
present  day.  The  notions  of  the  members 
of  the  guilds  were  of  a  very  exclusive  na- 
ture in  regard  to  the  admission  of  members. 
No  inlleirui  were  permitted  to  join  them, 
and  all  freemen  who  were  proposed  had  to 
be  duly  elected. 

The  noblest  of  all  tlie  guilds  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  undoubtedly  that  of  the 
masons.  This  brotherhood  rose  from  the 
circumstances  in  which  the  travelling 
builders  of  the  Middle  Ages  found  them- 
selves placed.  "They  were  brought  to- 
gether from  distant  homes  to  be  employed 
for  a  considerable  time  on  such  great  works 
as  our  mediaival  churches  and  aitlie<lrals. 
Near  the  rising  structure  on  whicli  they 
were  engage<l  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  provide  for  themselves  a  common 
shed  or  tabernacle."  This  was  the  origi- 
nal masons'  "lodge."  Before  all  things  it 
was  necessary  that  masons  should  be  "free 
and  accepted."  The  entrance  into  this 
guild,  aa  indeed  into  all  others,  vrna,  in  ac^ 


oordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  sur- 
rouuded  by  mysterious  rites  and  ceremonies, 
and  all  such  societies  had  their  peculiar 
lore  and  traditions.  Their  original  inten- 
tions have  long  ago  been  disregarded.  All 
that  remains  of  the  masons'  guild  is  the 
now  fashionable  order  of  "'Freemasons," 
and  of  the  others  the  rich  livery  companies 
of  London  and  the  guilds  of  elsewhere, 
who  now  spend  their  dying  moments,  as 
they  inaugurated  their  existence  centuries 
ago,  at  dinner.* 

The  exdusiveness  of  the  guilds  naturally 
separated  still  more  the  incipient  working 
class  from  their  well-to-do  superiors,  and 
tended  more  and  more  to  give  the  work- 
men separate  views  and  interests,  which 
were  not  infrequently  antagonistic  to  those 
of  the  employer  or  "master.'"  When  two  or 
three  are  gathered  with  identical  interests 
(and  those  interests  opposed  to  the  wishes 
of  their  employers,  who  are  already  com- 
bined), it  seems  so  natural  ior  them  to  form 
a  combination  of  some  sort  or  other  that  it 
is  imix)ssible  to  resist  the  belief  that  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  working  man — ex- 
cluded from  the  guild — would  unite  with 
his  fellows,  if  not  for  general,  yet  for  speci- 
fic objects  in  connection  with  his  condition. 
It  is  gratifying  to  learn  that  this  view  is 
taken  by  so  high  an  authority  as  Dr.  Lujo 
Brentano,whoal.-o  points  out  that,  at  about 
4he  time  referred  to,  accounts  of  ''strikes 
tn  the  building  trade  are  particularly  nu- 
merous ; "  and  there  is  in  existence  a 
"royal  mandate  as  to  the  workmen  who 
have  withdrawn  from  the  palace  of  West- 
minster."  Indeed,  it  is  beyond  dispute 
that  the  masons  of  the  fourteenth  century 
maintained  a  higher  rate  of  wages  than 
was  paid  to  other  crafts,  as  has  been  above 
mentioned,  solely  on  account  of  the  combi- 
nation these  artisans  were  able  to  effect ; 
a  fact  that  non  unionists  of  to  day  would 
do  well  to  remember. 

This  view  is  strengthened  by  the  fact 
that  in  1383  the  authorities  of  the  city  of 
London  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding 
all  "congregations,  covins,  and  conspiracies 
of  workmen  ;"  and  four  years  later  three 
shoemakers  were  carried  off  to  Newgate 
for  violating  it :  while  in  1396  a  similar 
coalition  of  saddlers  was  suppressed.  Two 
laws  also  were  enacted  against  combina- 
tions, congregations,  and  chapters  of  work- 
men (which  had  been  established  to  limit 
the  number  of  working  hoars >,  viz.,  the  34 
Edward  IV.,  c.  f>,  and  3  Henry  YI,  c.  1. 
The  punishments  inflicted  upon  working 
men  for  combining  were  very  severe,  and 
yet  they  combined  in  spite  of  such  punish- 
ments. The  endeavors  of  the  laborers  to 
raise  wages  showed  themselves  most  promi- 

*  It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  now  some  of  the 
livery  companies  are  devoting  a  f>ortion  of  their 
funds  to  useful  puposes,  such  as  ttie  promotion  of 
technical  education,  etc. 


nently  in  tr.e  trades  in  which,  as  in  the 
cloth  manufacturers,  development  was 
most  rapidly  progressing,  and  in  which 
there  existed  a  large  working  class. 

The  prosperity  of  the  laborers  and  arti- 
sans produced  events  that  alarmed  the 
privilegetl  classes.  The  emancipation  of 
the  serfs  had  for  some  time  past  proceeded 
very  rapidly,  from  causes  which  have  been 
already  indicated.  I'rofessor  Thorold 
Eogeis,  after  an  enormous  amount  of  re- 
search, writes  of  the  fourteenth  century,  "In 
the  many  thousands  of  bailiffs  and  manor 
rolls  which  I  have  read,  I  have  never  met 
with  a  .single  instance  of  the  sale  of  a 
serf,  nor  have  I  discovered  any  labor  rent 
for  which  an  equitable  money  payment 
could  not  besub-stituted."  Indeed,  during 
the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  the  practice  be- 
came general  of  accepting  money  compen- 
sation in  lieu  of  labor  rents ;  and  at  the 
end  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  rule  had 
become  almost  uni\ersal.  The  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  of  the  serfs  created 
an  amount  of  independence  among  them 
that  had  the  happiest  results. 

Sir  Kobert  Sale,  Captain-General  of  Nor- 
wich in  1381,  was  the  son  of  a  villein,  wae 
born  a  serf,  as  was  also  Grostete,  the  great 
Oxford  scholar  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
thus  showing  that  even  in  those  days  serfs 
could  rise  1o  very  high  positions.  There  is 
abundant  evidence,  too,  that  they  became 
possessed  of  property,  and  indeed,  as  they 
became  enfranchised,  they  also  became 
copyholders.  It  ia  certain  they  paid  rent, 
which  indicates  a  real  bargain  between  the 
lord  and  the  serf  which  the  former  could 
not  break  if  the  other  fatisiied  his  dues  ; 
and  he  could  recover  wages  due  to  him 
from  his  lordly  employer  by  distraint  upon 
his  goods,  even  upon  his  chattels,  and 
therefore  could  not  be  a  chattel  himself. 
The  impetus  given  to  this  process  Viy  the 
general  rise  after  the  Black  Death  was 
brief,  and  that  plague,  in  short,  emanci- 
pated almost  the  whole  of  the  surviving 
serfs. 

It  was,  therefore,  amongst  a  prosperous 
and  independent  class  that  Wiklif 's  "Poor 
Priests,"  or  Lollards,  followed  by  John 
Ball,  also  a  priest,  preached  doctrines  that 
in  those  days  were  revolutionary  doctrines, 
and,  in  the  eyes  of  some  people,  are  so 
still.  From  village  to  village  the  old 
couplet  was  repeated  : 

'•When  Adana  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Wlio  was  then  the  gentleman?" 

The  people  were  taught  that  those  who 
labored,  did  so  not  only  for  themselves,  but 
to  enable  others  to  live  without  labor,  or  to 
live  by  mischievous  labor.  The  "equality" 
expounded  in  the  Bible  was  explained  to 
them,  and  generally  it  was  impressed  upon 
them  that  they  were  oppressed  by  a  priv- 
ileged class  whom  accident,  fraud,  or  force 
had  placed  in  a  superior  social  sphere. 


The  men  were  not  starving,  and  had  time 
to  listen  and  to  think,  and,  above  all  things, 
to  combine.  And  they  did  combine.  They 
subscribed  money;  they  shielded  the  escaped 
serf  from  the  pursuit  of  his  lord  ;  the  serf 
and  the  free  joined  in  a  common  cause, 
and  waited  but  the  signal  to  "strike" 
j^ainst  their  enemies.  The  sign  was  at 
length  given,  and  the  result  was,  on  the 
10th  of  June,  1381,  the  Peasants'  Kevolt, 
or  Wat  Tyler's  Rebellion.  This  was  a 
rising  caused,  not  by  the  outrage  on  Tyler's 
daughter,  or  even  the  poll  tax,  but  by  the 
general  attempts  by  the  upper  classes  to 
force  down  the  wages  of  the  laborers  of 
England,  and  to  take  from  them  the  rights 
they  had  won,  though  of  course  other 
grievances  would  not  be  forgotten.  In  all 
risings  for  a  particular  object,  the  oppor- 
tunity is  seized  of  making  many  demands. 
For  the  particulars  of  that  revolt  the  reader 
la  referred  to  the  history  of  the  period. 
The  rebellion  nearly  succeeded,  b'lt  the 
laborers  were  cajoled  into  quietude. 

From  this  time  forward  for  three  centu- 
ries the  history  of  the  laboring  cla.ss  is  a 
aad  story.  The  governing  powers  never  for- 
gave the  Lollards,  nor  those  who  listened 
to  them.  They  seized  every  opportunity 
of  crushing  the  people,  and  it  is  only  re- 
cently that  policy  has  been  departed  from. 
It  is  not  too  mu(;h  to  say  that  from  this 
time  to  1824,  in  the  words  of  the  author 
already  quoted,  "a  conspiracy  concocted  by 
the  law,  and  carried  out  by  parties  inter- 
ested in  its  su  cess,  was  entered  into  to 
cheat  the  English  workman  of  his  wages, 
to  tie  him  to  the  soil,  to  deprive  him  of 
age,  and  to  degrade  him  into  irreparable 
poverty."  The  first  of  these  repressive 
measures  was  the  deba.sement  of  the  coin 
by  Henry  VIII.  and  the  guardians  of  Ed- 
ward VI.  The  netarious  transactions  by 
which  this  was  brought  about  had  for  their 
oVjject  the  replenishment  of  the  royal 
coffers  out  of  the  earnings  of  the  arti.sans 
and  laborers,  and  they  succeeded  in  that 
object.  The  peasantry  were  already  im- 
poverished by  the  action  of  the  land- 
owners in  substituting  sheep-farming  for 
agriculture,  and  the  new  state  of  alfaiis 
opi)ressed  thtm  with  great  severity. 

The  purchasing  power  of  the  revenue 
fell  to  one-third  of  its  original  capacity, 
and  the  consequent  rise  in  prices  was  one 
and  a  half.  In  other  words,  if  wages  rose 
from  Gd.  to  9d.  a  day,  the  laborers  had  to 
pay  ;j.s.  for  meat,  2n.  fid.  for  bread,  and  2s. 
Gd.  fi)r  butter  and  cheese,  where  he  had 
paid  Is.  before.  This,  it  is  obvious,  put 
back  the  laborer  into  a  position  of  penury 
to  which  he  had  not  been  accustomexl ,  and 
to  which  he  did  not  readily  submit.  His 
condition  was  again  almost  that  of  the 
serf.  From  childhood  to  old  age  all  was 
labor.  Plight  hours  no  longer  constituted 
»  day's  work.    His  miserable  condition  was 


rendered  worse  by  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries  that  accompanied  the  debase- 
ment of  the  coin.  A  great  part  of  the  vast 
funds  of  the  monasteries  was  devoted  to 
the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  to  their  assist- 
ance in  many  ways.  "When  this  was  with- 
drawn, no  substitute  was  pro^^ded  in  its 
place.  These  transactions  were  followed 
by  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the 
guilds.  I  have  described  them  as  the  first 
Friendly  Societies.  The  guilds  assisted  the 
artisan  in  times  of  difiiculty,  allowed  him 
loans  without  interest,  and  granted  benefits 
to  his  widow.  The  effect  of  the  confisca^ 
tion  of  the  guilds  was  the  same  as  would 
result  from  the  confiscation  of  the  funds  of 
the  Friendly  Societies ;  and  it  is  worth 
noting,  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  strong 
union,  that  only  the  provincial  guilds  wer(! 
molested,  those  in  London  being  so  power- 
ful that  the  Crown  dared  not  molest  them. 

The  working  men  resisted  these  oipres- 
sions,  and  vigorous  measures  were  pasFed 
to  force  them  into  submission.  An  Act 
was  passed  iu  the  reign  of  Edwaid  VI., 
which  shows  pretty  plainly  what  was 
thought  in  those  days  of  the  "working 
classee."  If  a  man  refused  to  work  at 
statute  prices,  he  was  branded  with  the 
letter  V  (vagabond),  and  reduced  to  slavery 
for  two  years.  If  he  attempted  to  escape 
from  that  condition,  he  was  branded  with 
S,  and  became  a  slave  for  life  ;  and  if  he 
objected  to  that  state,  he  was  banged-  It 
is  also  evident  that  the  spirit  of  combina- 
tion was  growing  amongst  the  laborers  and 
artisans,  for  the  laws  against  workmen's 
combinations  were  made  still  more  strin- 
gent than  hitherto.  The  preamble  of  2d 
and  3d  Edward  VI.,  cap.  15  (A.n.  2548), 
set  forth  that  "artificers,  handicraftf^men, 
and  laborers  had  made  confederacies  and 
promises,  and  have  sworn  mutual  oaths, 
not  only  that  they  should  not  meddle  with 
one  another's  work,  and  perform  and  finish 
what  another  halh  begun,  but  also  to  con- 
stitute and  appoint  how  much  they  shall 
do  in  a  day,  and  what  hours  and  times 
they  shall  work,  contrary  to  the  laws  and 
statutes  of  this  realm,  and  to  Ihe  great  im- 
poverishment of  his  Majesty's  subjects." 
Anyone  convicted  for  the  third  time  of 
having  joined  such  a  combination  had  his 
ear  cut  off,  and  altogether  the  punishments 
were  very  severe. 

It  may  be  gathered,  then,  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  combination  amongst  the  work- 
people was  rapidly  progressing,  and  wat 
met  under  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  in  a 
spirit  which,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  is  not 
wholly  extinct  at  the  present  day,  as  recent 
events  have  shown. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  stale  of  af- 
fairs .should  have  impressed  the  thinking 
minds  of  the  period  ;  and  that  the  causes 
and  remedies  should  be  con.sidercd.  State«- 
meu  and  persons  of  iuflueuce  began  lu  aii^ 


knowledge  the  j  ustice  of  the  demands  of  the 
workpeople.  In  Sir  Thomas  More's  Utopia 
the  great  statesman  advocates  almost  all 
the  reforms  that  have  taken  place  since  his 
day,  and  many  that  have  not  yet  been  ac- 
complished. Indeed,  as  Mr.  J.  E.  Green 
points  out,  "  In  his  treatment  of  the  ques- 
tion of  labor  he  still  remains  far  in  advance 
of  current  opinion.  The  whole  system  of 
society  around  him  seemed  to  him  'nothing 
but  a  conspiracy  of  the  rich  against  the 
poor. '  Its  economic  legislation  was  simply 
the  carrying  out  of  such  a  conspiracy  by 
process  of  law.  The  rich  are  ever  striving 
to  pare  away  something  further  from  the 
daily  wages  of  the  poor  by  private  fraud, 
and  even  by  public  law,  so  that  the  wrong 
Already  existing  (for  it  is  a  wrong  that  those 
from  whom  the  State  derives  most  benefit 
should  receive  least  reward)  is  made  yet 
greater  by  means  of  the  law  of  the  State. 

"The  rich  devise  every  means  by  which 
they  may  in  the  first  place  secure  to  them- 
selves what  they  have  amassed  by  wrong, 
and  then  take  to  their  own  use  and  profit  at 
the  lowest  possible  price  the  work  and  labor 
of  the  poor. ' '  The  result  was  the  wretched 
existence  to  which  the  labor  class  was 
doomed —  "a  life  so  wretched  that  even  a 
beast's  life  seems  enviable."  More  then 
gives  his  remedies.  The  end  of  labor  laws, 
he  says,  should  Vje  the  welfare  of  the  laborer. 
Labor  should  be  compulsory  with  all.  Un- 
less a  man  work,  neither  shall  he  eat.  Even 
in  those  days,  1516,  More  demanded  that 
the  period  of  toil  should  be  shortened  to 
nine  hours,  with  a  view  to  the  intellectual 
improvement  of  the  worker:  there  miist  be 
also,  he  pleaded,  "a  public  system  of  edu- 
cation," comfortable  homes  for  the  people, 
complete  toleration  and  equality  of  all  re- 
ligions, and  much  more  in  the  same  strain. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  any  book  that  was 
ever  written  has  done  so  much  for  the  work- 
ing classes  as  the  Utopia,  written  by  the 
proposer  of  the  nine  hours  system  more 
than  three  hundred  years  ago.  The  general 
progress  of  civilization,  even,  had  its  draw- 
backs as  regards  the  humbler  classes.  The 
general  diffusion  of  the  art  of  printing,  the 
great  geographical  discoveries  effected  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  general  ac- 
tivity which  prevailed  throughout  Europe 
immediately  after  the  Eeformation,  gave  a 
great  stimulus  to  trade  and  commerce,  the 
efiects  of  which  were  long  felt.  This,  of 
coarse,  had  a  beneficial  infiuence.  It  had, 
however,  some  drawbacks.  Amongst  them 
may  be  mentioned  that  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  practice  of  setting  children  pre- 
iTHiturely  to  work  prevailed  to  a  very  large 
extent.  At  Norwich,  the  chief  seat  of  the 
clothing  trade,  children  began  to  work  at 
six  years  old,  and  earned  not  the  "insig- 
nificant trifie"  which  was  paid  to  the  little 
sufferers  forty  years  ago,  but  very  much 
more  than  was  necessary  for  their  own  sus- 


tenance. In  the  opposition  which  was 
shown  at  the  time  to  this  inhumanity  is  to 
be  discerned  the  dawn  of  the  Factory  Acts, 
and  of  the  opposition  which  was  subse- 
quently offered  by  Trade  Unions  to  the 
overworking  of  youths  and  children. 

I  must  mention  another  kind  of  legisla- 
tion that  emphasized  the  evils  already  in- 
dicated. A  state  of  affairs  had  been  pro- 
duced which  created  a  class  who  required 
not  only  work,  but  food,  and  it  was  sought 
to  remedy  the  evil  by  the  enactment  of 
poor  laws.  I  must  refer  the  reader  else- 
where for  an  account  of  statutes  whose 
chief  result  was  the  manufacture  of  pau- 
pers, and  whose  only  effect  could  be  to  make 
the  poor,  poorer.  It  will  be  sufficient  to 
say  here  that  the  Justices  in  quarter  ses- 
sions had  the  power  to  fix  wages,  apotverthat 
continued  under  legal  sanction  till  1812. 
Naturally  they  were  fixed  at  the  lowest 
possible  figure,  the  Justices  knowing  full 
well  that  any  deficiency  would  be  paid  out 
of  the  poor  rates,  to  which  all  occupiers^ 
that  is,  the  country  at  large — would  be 
obliged  to  contribute.  There  could  be 
but  one  result  from  this.  Wages  would 
continually  fall,  and  the  amount  of  poor 
relief  as  continually  rise.  As  a  consequence, 
the  time  would  ultimately  arrive  when  it 
would  require  the  whole  of  the  rent  from 
land  in  order  to  relieve  the  poor.  Indeed, 
that  condition  was  being  approached  and 
would  undoubtedly  have  been  reached  but 
for  the  discovery  of  steam  power  and 
machine  weaving,  which,  as  will  appear 
later  on,  created  a  great  demand  for  labor 
and  raised  wages. 

In  spite  of  all  these  difficulties,  however, 
the  men  continued  to  combine,  and  the  le- 
gislature to  pass  laws  against  combination. 
The  revolution  of  1688  gave  no  liberties  to 
the  artisans  and  the  peasants.  In  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  it  was  or- 
dained that  "journeymen  should  make  no 
unlawful  assemblies,  brotherhoods,  congre- 
gations, and  flockings  together. "  The  Act 
of  2  and  3  Ed.  VI.,  c.  15  (aeeante,  p.  7) 
was  confirmed  by  22-23  Charles  II.,  and 
remained  in  force  until  repealed  by  6  Geo. 
IV.,  c.  129.  The  stringent  laws,  too,  to 
which  workingmen  were  subjected  after 
the  Restoration,  rendered  their  position 
far  from  comfortable  or  just.  As  if  the 
statutes  were  not  sufficiently  rigorous,  the 
construction  of  the  existing  laws,  the  offence 
of  conspiracy ,  originally  referring  to  combi- 
nations for  the  purpose  of  procuring  false 
evidence,  or  of  committing  some  crime,  was 
extended  to  associations  of  work  men  whose 
purpose  was  to  raise  wages.  Even  so  late 
as  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  farm  la- 
borer had  no  right  to  sell  his  labor  in  the 
best  market,  but  was  compelled  to  work 
for  any  employer  in  his  parish  who  chose 
to  demand  his  services  at  a  price  fixed  by 
statute.  It  was  not  until  1795  that  a  work- 


man  could  legally  travel  in  searcli  of  em- 
ployment out  of  his  own  parish.  In  154.") 
the  City  of  London  complained  that  the 
importation  of  foreign  manufactures  was 
ruining  the  country,  and  demanded  low 
wages  as  a  remedy.  In  1680  there  was,  as 
there  is  now,  the  cry  that  if  we  paid  our  ar- 
tisans high  wages  we  should  be  unable  to 
compete  with  loreign  countries.  In  that 
year  Mr.  John  Bassett,  the  member  for 
Barnstaple,  remarked  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  our  textures  to  maintain  a  compe- 
tition with  the  produce  of  the  Indian  looms. 
'  'An  English  mechanic. ' '  hesaid, ' '  instead 
of  slaving  like  a  native  of  Bengal  for  a  piece 
of  copper,  exacted  a  shilling  a  day."  Al- 
though this  amount  is  equivalent  to  only 
aboutone-half  of  the  present  rate  of  wages, 
there  were  even  then,  as  indeed  there  al- 
ways have  been,  attempts  to  reduce  the 
amount ;  and  there  is  ample  evidence  that 
so  long  ago  as  when  the  above  words  were 
spoken  there  was  "  the  vehement  and  bitter 
cry  of  labor  against  capital. "  "  For  so  mis- 
erable a  recompense, ' '  wrote  Loid  Macaulay 
on  ttie  aforesaid  one  shilling  a  day,  "  were 
the  pioducers  of  wealth  compelled  to  toil, 
rising  early  and  lying  down  late,  while  th«^ 
master  clothier,  eating,  sleeping,  and  id- 
ling, became  rich  by  their  exertions. " 

From  the  earliest  times  until  the  present 
day,  then,  employers  have  endeavored  to 
pay  their  men  as  little  as  possible  for  as 
many  hours'  work  as  they  could  possibly 
get  out  of  them.  In  this  task  the  masters 
have  ever  been  assisted  by  a  Parliament  of 
sympathizing  friends — a  Parliament  which 
has  always  yielded  reluctantly  to  any  mea- 
sure calculated  to  improve  the  masses,  but 
has  greedily  accepted  any  proposal  to  bene- 
fit the  few  at  the  cost  of  many;  and  al- 
though the  onward  and  upward  march  of 
civilization  hits  rendered  such  conduct  less 
easy  in  the  present  day,  yet  still  tkere  is 
the  old  tendency  to  legislate  as  though  the 
capitalist  were  entitled  to  all  the  plums 
and  the  laborer  to  all  the  kicks. 

The  numerous  attempts  to  fix  wages  by 
Act  of  Parliament  were  nearly  all  failures. 
The  assessment  of  weavers'  wages  by  the 
Justices  had  fallen  into  disuse  before  1720. 
In  that  year  the  Justices  reasserted  the  au- 
thority they  po.ssessed,  and  fixed  wages,  but 
their  injunctions  were  disregarded.  Ko  late 
as  1708  an  Act  was  passed  compelling  the 
London  tailors  to  work  from  G  a.  m .  t  o  7  p.  ni . , 
with  an  interval  of  one  hour  only  for  re- 
freshments. The  same  Act  also  fixed  the 
wages  of  the  cloth  worker  at  2.s'.  'id.  a  day. 
Either  master  or  servant  was  liable  to  im- 
prisonment for  two  months  for  violating 
these  rules;  and  a  master  was  furth«  r  liable 
to  a  fine  of  £.'AH)  if  he  employed  workmen 
Avho  "lived  more  than  five  miles  from  Ix>n- 
don.  In  17!).')  the  Berkshire  magistrates  at 
Speenhamland  declared  that  wages  should 
rise  or  fall  with  the  price  of  brea<l,  and 


themselves  fixed  the  rates.  Numerous  Acts 
were  passed  about  this  time  regulating,  or 
rather  interfering  with,  the  most  minute 
details  of  manufacturing  industry.  To 
stimulate  the  Macclesfield  trade  it  was  en- 
acted that  no  ' '  buttons  or  button-holes 
made  of  cloth,  serge,  drugget,  frieze,  cam- 
let, or  any  other  stufls,  should  be  made, 
set,  or  bound  on  clothes,  or  worn  ;"  and  the 
bare  enumeration  of  similar  legislation 
would  occupy  more  space  than  is  at  present 
at  disposal.  The  attempts  to  keep  wages 
down  were  supported  by  statesmen  who 
ought  to  have  known  better.  Pitt,  Fox, 
and  Whitbread  distinctly  asserted  the  un» 
jirst  and  pernicious  doctrine  that  a  laborer's 
remuneration  should  be  proportioned,  not 
to  his  services,  but  to  his  wants,  and  in 
1796  the  magistrates  in  Berkshire  attempted 
to  "settle  the  incomes  of  the  industrious 
poor."  The  liberty  of  operatives  was  still 
further  restricted  at  the  clo&e  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  by  an  Act  of  Parliament 
which  declared  to  be  illegal,  all  contracts, 
except  between  ma:>ters  and  men,  for  ob- 
taining advances  of  wages,  altering  the 
usual  time  of  working,  decreasing  the 
quantity  of  work. 

It  is  difiicult  to  conceive,  in  the  face  of 
all  this,  how  the  condition  of  the  working- 
man  has  improved  in  the  slightest  degree. 
Indeed, it  has  not  increased  proportionally. 
He  has  certainly  been  enveloped,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  general  progress  of  affairs ; 
he  has  doubtless  shared  somewhat  in  the 
national  prosperity;  but  whatever  improve- 
ment has  taken  place  in  the  condition  of 
the  working  classes,  does  not  all  correspond 
with  the  improvement  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes.  In 
regard  to  the  agricultural  laborer  the  case 
is  very  bad.  In  1740  a  Sufiblk  laborer 
could  buy  for  5.s.,  what  in  1801  cost  him 
2G.-;.  5d.  As  Professor  Rogers  says,  "For 
five  centuries  and  a  half,  for  fifteen,  sixteen 
generations,  there  was  no  appreciable  al- 
teration in  the  condition  of  the  people."' 
It  remained  stationary,  where  it  did  not 
deteriorate,  from  Henry  II [.  to  George  III. 
The  condition  to  day  of  the  laborer  in  the 
agricultural  districts  of  England,  and  the 
in.stanceswhich  are  reported  of  theconduct 
of  the  employed,  speak  of  misery  and  op- 
pression worthy  of  the  Tudors  and  the 
Stuarts.  Down  to  1779  the  condition  of 
the  miners  in  Scotland  was  lit«  rally  one  of 
.serfdom.  They  were  obliged  to  rtinain  in 
the  pit  as  long  as  the  owner  chose  to  keep 
them  there,  and  they  were  actually  sold  as 
part  of  the  capital  invested  in  the  work. 
If  they  took  work  elsewhere,  their  master 
could  always  have  them  fetched  back  and 
flogged  as  thieves  for  having  robbed  him  of 
their  labor.  It  is  no  wonder  that  in  17  l.'i 
the  magistrates  of  Lancashire  were  alarmed 
at  the  symi)toms  of  combination  and  «iisa;'- 
fection,    and    once    again    resorted    to    un 


10 


attempt  to  fix  wages  in  spite  of  past  experi- 
euces. 

It  were  tedious  to  mention  the  varions 
events  which  have  ruffled  the  career  of  the 
laborer  during  the  last,  century.  It  is  often 
stated  that  wages  had  gradually  risen  and 
food  had  cheapened.  This,  however,  is  a 
mistake.  From  1800  until  after  the  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws  the  state  of  the  laborer 
seems  never  to  have  been  in  its  natural 
condition.  During  that  period  wages  were 
never  high,  and  at  times  the  distress  was 
very  great.  England  was  then  (1810-1812) 
in  anything  but  an  enviable  position.  On 
tbe  Continent  the  hand  of  every  nation  was 
agunst  her,  and  her  hand  was  against  every 
nation.  She  was  at  war  with  all  the  em- 
pires she  had  not  subsidized  in  the  Old 
World,  and  her  arms  were  struggling  with 
her  own  offspring  in  the  New  World,  as 
well  as  fighting  a  war  of  oppression  in  the 
Indies.  These  wars,  which  lasted  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  spread  misery  like  a 
pall  over  the  land.  Trade  was  paralyzed  ; 
foreign  ports,  both  in  Europe  and  America, 
were  closed  to  us,  and  by  a  pig-headed  pol- 
icy* our  ports  were  closed  to  them.  There 
was  not  work  for  anybody,  and  nearly 
everybody,  therefore,  w.is  starving.  Just  at 
this  time  an  event  took  place  which,  al- 
though a  great  blessing,  and  known  to  be 
so  at  the  time  by  far-sighted  men,  was  not 
unaccompanied  by  those  disasters  which 
generally  accompany  great  changes.  While 
nearly  all  men  were  out  of  work,  capital- 
ists began  to  introduce  into  the  manufac- 
turing districts  labor-saving  machines, 
which  dispensed  with  seven  out  of  every 
eight  handworkers.  This  was  the  last  straw. 

The  men  were  in  no  humor  for  reasoning 
on  the  principles  of  political  economy. 
They  were  starving  ;  and  to  their  eyes  the 
new  machinery  cut  olT  every  chance  of 
their  ever  working  again.  They  formed 
the  strongest  and  most  secret  combination 
ever  known  in  this  country.  Their  object 
was  to  destroy  the  new  machines,  and  for 
three  years  the  havoc  they  committed,  es- 
pecially in  Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  and 
Nottinghamshire,  was  immense.  It  was 
not  until  enormous  powers  were  granted 
to  the  military,  the  magistracy,  and  the 
polite,  that  the  conspiracy  was  brought  to 
an  end  by  the  execution  of  thirty  of  the 
ringleaders.  | 

Such  was  the  miserable  condition  of  the 

*  The  notorious  "  Orders  in  Council." 
+  The  "Luddite  Rising,"  as  tlie  di'-afifection  haa 
been  called,  was  intensified  by  the  fact  that, 
whereas  the  operatives  were  starving,  the  capi- 
talists were  hoarding.  Mr.  J.  K.  Green  says: 
'"The  war  enriched  the  landowner,  the  capitalist, 
the  manufacturer,  the  farmer;  but  it  impover- 
ished the  poor.  It  is,  indeed,  from  the  fatal  years 
which  lie  between  the  Peace  of  Amiens  and 
Waterloo  that  we  must  date  that  war  of  classes, 
that  social  severance  between  rich  and  poor,  be- 
tween employers  and  employed, which  still  forms 
the  great  difficulty  of  English  politics." 


laborers,  and  their  meagre  powers  of  com- 
bination, at  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Everywhere  the  combination 
laws  were  in  full  force  ;  the  truck  system 
was  almost  universally  established,  and 
still  further,  to  make  the  workman  depend- 
ent, he  was  paid  at  long  intervals  ;  anil  any 
advances  kindly  made  to  him  by  a  gener- 
ous employer  were  charged  lor  at  tbe  rate 
of  2C0  per  cent,  per  annum.  Add  to  these 
the  fact  that  the  men  were  kept  at  work 
sixteen  hours  out  of  every  twenty -four,and 
it  will  be  no  matter  of  surprise  that  they 
were  driven  to  defy  the  cruel  and  unjust 
laws  which  oppressed  ihem,  and  to  carry 
out  their  object,  not  only  in  the  most  na- 
tural of  all  ways,  but  by  the  means  with 
which  they  were  most  familiar,  namely, 
by  combination. 

The  progress  of  industry  at  last  rendered 
this  imperative.  The  application  of  steam 
power  to  the  processes  of  manufiicture,  fol- 
lowed by  the  inventions  of  Arkwright, 
Crompton,  Hargreaves,  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  others,  had  almost 
annihilated  the  domestic  system  of  manu- 
facturing. Hitherto  weaving  had  been 
carried  on  in  private  houses  and  in  sheds 
adjoining  them,  as  is  still  the  case  in  some 
parts  of  Yorkshire,  as,  for  instance,  the  vil- 
lages about  Huddersfield  and  Leeds.  Ap-« 
prentices  lived  with  their  masters  as  part 
of  the  family.*  It  was  a  common  occur- 
rence tor  the  apprentice  to  marry  his  mas- 
ter's daughter,  and  enter  into  partnership 
with  her  father.  With  the  impiovementof 
machinery,  however,  when  several  looms 
were  worked  by  one  engine,  the  domestic 
system  was  supplanted  by  the  factory  sys- 
tem. The  rapid  production  of  new  ma- 
chines ruined  the  trade  of  the  hand  loom 
weaver.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
introduction  of  machinery  was  at  Jirtit  ex- 
tremely injurious  to  tho&e  whose  means  of 
living  were  affected — as,  indeed,  every  im- 
provement in  machinery  must  injure  those 
who  are  only  able  to  keep  in  the  old  groove. 
By  the  invention  of  machinery  the  public, 
who  paid  less  for  their  goods,and  the  man- 
ufacturers who  produced  more  cloth  for 
the  same,  or  a  less  outlay, were  the  gainers. 
The  old  weavers  were  the  only  losers. f 

I  have  said  the  men  resorted  to  the  means 
with  which  they  were  most  familiar,  viz., 
combination.  Their  experiences  on  this 
point  have  already  been  sketched,  but  now 
a  new  departure  was  made.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  last  century  the  principle  of  the 
guilds  had  extended  itself  beyond  the  mid- 
dle class,  and  had  reached   the  working 


*  In  1806  there  were  above  100  such  apprentices 
in  Armley,  a  manufacturing  village  of  betweea 
4,000  and  5,000  inhabitants. 

t  This  has  always  been  the  case.  The  objec- 
tions in  1730  to  the  "new-fangled  machine"  (for 
winnowing)  introduced  into  Scotland  are  well 
known. 


11 


classes.  More  correctly  speaking,  the  ca- 
pitalists had  withdrawn,  and  left  the  men 
to  organize  and  to  promote  their  combina- 
tion and  organization.  In  1703  the  Watch- 
makers' Society  and  the  Norman  Society 
were  established  in  London  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  present  friendly  societies;  and, 
with  others  nearly  as  old,  are  still  in  exist- 
ence. The  example  thus  set  was  followed 
by  the  rapid  promotion  of  similar  societies. 
Such  associations,  however,  were  illegal, 
and  their  meetings  were  obliged  to  be  held 
privately.  The  "Friendly  Society  of  Iron 
Founders,"  which  began  in  1810,  used  to 
meet  on  dark  nights  on  the  peaty  wastes 
and  moors  on  the  highlands  of  the  Midland 
counties,  and  the  archives  of  the  society 
were  buried  in  the  peat.  These  societies 
have  now  ramifications  all  over  the  empire, 
and  in  England  and  Wales  alone  have  funds 
amounting  to  upwards  of  £150,000. 

It  was  customary  at  the  beginning  of 
this  century  for  men  from  various  factories 
*x>  "'neet  at  taverns  to  pay  their  instalments 
i^to  the  friendly  society,  the  benefit  fund, 
i>r  the  burial  club.  At  such  gatherings  the 
new  ptate  of  affairs — as  being  the  subject 
nearest  every  workman's  heart — naturally 
became  the  common  topic  of  conversation. 
Every  phase  of  the  question  was  thoroughly 
discussed,  and  the  conduct  of  the  several 
employers  was  freely  criticized.  The  op- 
eratives naturally  inquired  why  the  hardest 
work  and  the  least  pay  generally  went  to- 
gether. They  saw  that  everything  around 
them  was  improving  except  their  own  con- 
dition, and  this  appeared  to  be  deteriorat- 
ing. At  length  some  few  who  worked 
under  a  specially  severe  taskmaster  would 
naturally  rebel.  They  would  agree  or  com- 
bine to  resist  the  injustice  and  oppression 
under  which  they  suffered.  Their  friends 
would  not  only  sympathize  with  them, 
but,  knowing  not  how  soon  they  might  be 
placed  in  a  similar  position,  would  help 
them  in  their  fight,  and  thus,  what  was  at 
first  merely  a  chat  over  a  glass  of  beer, 
soon  became  a  trade  union.  ' "  Men, ' '  says 
Mr.W.  T.  Thornton,  "are  seldom  collected 
together  in  large  masses  without  speedily 
discovering  that  union  isstrength,  and  men 
wnose  daily  avocations  obliged  them  to  be 
constantly  using,  and  by  use  to  be  constantly 
sharpening,  their  wits,  were  not  likely 
to  be  backward  in  making  this  discovery. ' ' 

The  origin  of  the  trade  unions  accounts 
for  a  great  many  of  their  peculiar  features. 
As  combining  was  illegal,  the  unions  dis- 
gui.sed  themselves  as  friendly  societies.  In 
framing  the  rules  the  founders  naturally 
looked  at  such  models  as  they  were  already 
pos.sessed  of;  and,  as  wiser  men  have  done, 
they  selected  much  that  was  bad  as  well 
as  much  that  was  good.  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact  that  those  rules  at  present  in  existence 
in  trade  unions,  which  give  so  much  offence 
to  employers,  are  all  actual  copies  of  the 


rules  of  the  ancient  guilds,  or  reproductions 
of  the  provisions  of  ancient  statutes.  The 
workingmen  invented  no  absurdities.  It 
cannot  be  too  often  borne  in  mind  that 
trade  unions  are  as  much  a  natural  devel- 
opment as  is  the  British  Constitution  it- 
self, and  it  is  as  foolish  to  expect  immediate 
perfection  in  the  one  as  finality  in  the 
amendments  already  effected  in  the  other. 
The  history  of  the  world  teaches  us  that  so 
universal  is  frailty  that  it  is  not  until  every 
variety  of  error  has  been  passed  through 
and  exhausted  that  things  at  last  settle  in- 
to the  right  course. 

The  workingmen,  therefore,  cannot  be 
blamed  for  not  discovering  that  some  of 
the  rules  they  adopted  were  hardly  consist- 
ent with  the  general  progress  of  opinion, 
and  it  is  greatly  to  their  credit  that  experi- 
ence has  taught  them  better.  The  foolish 
rules  are  never  introduced  into  new  socie- 
ties, and  they  are  being  gradually  expunged 
from  the  rules  of  the  old  ones.  This  must 
necessarily  be  a  work  of  time,  because  sev- 
eral of  the  old  rules  have  at  first  sight  an 
appearance  of  justice,  and  certainly  contain 
within  themselves  much  that  would  natu- 
rally commend  itself  to  the  workmen.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  rules  relating  to  appren- 
tices, in  those  trades  to  which  no  appren- 
ticeship is  needed.  The  rule  limiting  the 
number  of  apprentices  is  not  only  charac- 
teristic of  almost  all  the  guilds  and  of 
some  of  the  statutes,*  but  was  copied  by 
the  Inns  of  Court  and  the  Universities,  and 
is,  moreover,  one  that  would  especially 
commend  itself  before  the  introduction  of 
machinery.  In  the  first  place,  there  was, 
and  is,  the  desire  to  limit  the  number  of 
competitors  as  much  as  possible.  With  a 
market  sufficiently  well  stocked  with  work> 
men,  each  new  arrival  would  be  regarded 
with  great  jealousy.  Nor  is  there  anything 
wrong  in  the  notion  of  restricting  the  sup- 
ply of  laborers.  The  point  where  evil  may 
creep  in  is  found  in  the  means  taken  to 
bring  about  such  restrictions.  A  great  au- 
thority like  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  urged  upon  the 
workingmen  the  necessity  of  rc^tiicting 
their  numbers  as  a  means  of  increasing 
their  wages.  The  plan  he  recommended 
was  the  "prudential  check"  of  Malthus. 

What,  however,  seems  ea.sy  and  roseate  to 
the  philosopher  often  appears  difficult,  if 
not  impracticable,  to  the  ordinary  mortal ; 
and  the  last  generation  of  British  workmen 
took  such  steps  as  instantly  occurred  to 
them,  or  were  suggested  to  them,  and  the 
results  of  which  were  actually  before  their 
eyes.  Each  man  would  say  to  himself, 
"The  less  number  of  workers  in  my  trade 
the  better  it  is  for  me."  It  requires  a  high 
state  of  development  to  perceive  the  various 
and  intricate  ways  in  which  the  laws  of 

•  5  Eliz  ,  c.  4  ;  5  and  6  K<1.  VI.,  c.  22;  1  James  I.; 
c.  G. 


12 


production  and  distribution  work  so  as  to 
bring  about  the  greatest  happiness  to  the 
greatest  number.  Another  point  which 
would  naturally  occur  to  the  workman 
would  be  that /(e  taught  the  apprentice  and 
received  no  remuneration.  All  the  trouble 
and  work  of  training  the  youth  were  left  to 
the  artisan,  and  when  the  pupil  was  per- 
fect he  at  once  competed  with  his  teacher. 
During  the  whole  of  the  seven  years'  ap- 
prenticeship the  master  received  the  bene- 
fits of  the  youth's  extra  labor,  and  of  the 
premium  that  was  sometimes  paid  with 
him,  while  the  man  who  had  borne  the 
heat  and  burden  of  the  day  received  no  ad- 
vantage whatever.  The  rule  limiting  the 
number  of  apprentices,  then,  was  very  at- 
tractive to  the  founders  of  trade  unions. 
The  improvements  in  machinery,  however, 
are  rapidly  depriving  the  system  of  its  util- 
ity. It  may  have  require  I  a.  long  appren- 
ticeship before  a  man  could  weave  ;  it  re- 
quires little  to  "mind  a  loom  ;"  and  there- 
fore that  rule  of  the  trade  unions,  which  is 
80  often  quoted  by  employers  as  exhibiting 
the  arbitrary  principle  of  the  unions,  had  a 
natural  birth,  is  dying  a  natural  death, 
and  will  ere  long  be  decently  buried  and 
duly  forgotten. 

The  trade  unions  copied  several  other 
ancient  provisions,  such  as  the  rules  against 
sy.stematic  overtime.  The  guilds  also  for- 
bade a  member  to  work  with  a  non-mem- 
ber. No  member  was  to  instruct  another, 
and  "no  person  of  the  mystery  was  to  hire 
himself  to  a  person  of  another  mystery 
where  greater  wages  were  offered . "  "  Rat- 
tening" (exactly  similar  to  the  Sheffield 
system,  with  the  exception  that  in  the  old 
times  it  was  legal,  and  now  it  is  not)  was 
practised  against  those  persons  who  neglec- 
ted to  pay  their  subscriptions.  The  guilds 
had  also  their  "black  lists,"  and  the  word 
"donation,"  now  ajiplied  to  the  money 
given  to  men  ' '  on  tramp, "  is  a  translation 
of  "Geo-chenk,"  the  word  given  by  the  old 
German  guilds  to  the  workmen  who  were 
similarly  tramping.  These  and  other  rules 
were  copied  into  the  codes  of  the  new 
unions.  They  are  rapidly  becoming  obso- 
lete, and  are  not  enforced  at  all  in  the  iron 
industries.  In  these  industries  no  fixed 
period  of  servace  is  imposed  on  apprentices, 
nor  is  their  number  limited.  The  union 
men  do  not  refuse  to  work  with  non-union 
men,  and  "rattening"  is  not  allowed. 

From  this  it  is  seen  that,  in  the  natural 
order  of  things,  the  early  trade  union- 
ists selected  rules  which  they  now  ignore. 
They  aLso  showed  at  times  more  of  the 
bigotry  and  narrow-mindedness  of  a  by- 
gone age  than  one  likes  to  see  now.  There 
have  been  intolerants  in  every  creed, 
and  it  would  be  strange  if  trade  unions  had 
furnished  an  exception.  Even  the  most 
Dartial  inquirer  would  fail  to  detect  any 
<aore  intolerance  in  trade  unionism  than  can 


be  found  in  the  society  whicu  was  presided 
over  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland— or,indeed, 
in  any  other  combination.  It  would,  how- 
ever, not  have  been  surprising  if  intoler- 
ance had  reached  its  culminating  point  ia 
trade  unions.  The  wonder  is,  not  that  there 
has  been  so  much  ill-feeling  on  the  part  of 
the  men,  but  that  there  has  been  so  little. 
Oppression  breeds  intolerance.  The  men 
knew  that  it  was  illegal  to  combine,  and 
having  therefore  to  conspire,  they  came  to 
regard  both  their  masters  and  the  laws  as 
their  natural  enemies,  against  whom  they 
would  have  to  wage  a  war  prolonged,  if  not 
everlasting.  "Consciousness,"  says  Thorn- 
ton, "of  being  singled  out  as  victims  by  a 
partial  and  iniquitous  law,  directed  exclu- 
sively against  themselves,  naturally  excited 
in  them  both  general  prejudice  against  all 
law,  and  special  rancor  against  those  in 
whose  behalf  the  specially  obnoxious  law 
had  been  enacted. ' '  Created  by  strikes  and 
nurtured  by  oppression,  unions  long  re- 
tained their  warlike  spirit,  a  characteristic 
which  now  happily  is  passing  away. 

It  remains  to  add  that  combinations 
began,  not  amongst  the  workmen,  but 
amongst  the  masters.  The  employed  merely 
followed  the  example  of  their  employers. 
It  was,  and  still  is,  the  practice  of  large 
capitalists  to  combine  to  keep  down  the 
price  of  labor,  instead  of  competing  with 
each  other,  and  so  raising  wages  to  their 
"legitimate  rate, "  as  it  is  called.  Until 
lately  the  combination  of  the  masters  has 
been  directed  to  a  great  extent  against  poor, 
ignorant,  and  disunited  men,  and  on  that 
account  the  capitalists  have  generally  been 
successful.  This  state  of  things  is  now 
changed. 

It  is  seen,  then,  that  trade  unions  were 
not  improvised.  They  are  not  sudden  and 
impulsive  combinations,  carelessly  formed 
to  be  hastily  abandoned.  They  are  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  natural  laws.  Work- 
men soon  perceived  that  all  the  extra  profit.-' 
arising  from  approved  appliances  went 
into  the  pockets  of  the  capitalists,  and 
that  a  great  deal  of  additional  misery  and 
suffering  was  imposed  upon  themselves. 
They  saw  that  the  hardest  fare  and  the 
most  work  always  accompanied  each  other, 
and  there  were  complaints  loud  and  deep. 
Indeed,  trade  unions  have  always  been 
"forced"  into  existence  by  the  oppression 
of  the  masters  ;  and  when  attempts  have 
been  made  by  the  men  to  establish  a  anion 
in  the  absence  of  pressure  from  above,  they 
have  always  failed.*  At  this  distance  of 
time  we  can  now  clearly  see  that  the  em- 
ployers of  Nottingham  must  be  ])lamt  d  for 
the  fact  that,  in  1812,  half  the  population  of 
their  town  lived  upon  public  relief  To 
destroy  a  loom  was  punishable  with  death, 

*  The  first  attempt  of  the  London  tailors  and 
that  of  the  puddlers  in  18t5  are  cases  in  point. 


13 


and  it  was  then  that  numerous  associations 
of  wopkmen  sprung  into  existence.  These 
associations  developed  into  trade  unions  as 
soon  as  the  law  permitted  them  to  do  so.  It 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  indictment, 
tifty-seven  yards  long,  charging  some  me- 
chanics, in  1846,  with  conspiring  to  get  np  a 
strike,  and  with  some  '"thousands'  of  mis- 
demeanors, was  the  beginning  of  the  now 
large  association  known  as  the  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Engineers,  and  if  its 
success  was  at  all  doubtful,  the  conduct  of 
the  Messrs.  Piatt  in  1852  established  its 
basis  on  a  rock.  *     It  was  the  violation  of 

*■' After  a  lock-out  of  four  months,  and  tlie 
expenditure,  of  the  whule  of  the  aceumulated 
funds  of  the  Amalgamated  Society,  the  em- 
ployer.^ opened  their  works  again,  and  the  men 
went  back  on  the  old  terms.  Had  the  Amalga- 
luated  Society  broken  up,  as  was  confidently  ex- 
pected at  tlie  time,  the  labor  movement  might 
bave  been  thrown  back  a  quarter  of  a  century 


13  George  IV.,  cap.  68,  by  the  masters,  in 
favor  of  themselves  aud  against  the  inter- 
ests of  the  men,  which  led  the  Spitalfield 
weavers  to  form  their  association.  The 
oppression  of  the  miners  led  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  union  in  1831  ;  while  the  cloth- 
workers,  the  hatters,  calico  printers,  the 
Scotch  bakers  ( who  in  1846  were  little  bet- 
ter than  slaves),  and  all  the  new  as  well  a£! 
the  old  .societies,  have  been  forced  into  ei- 
i.stence  by  the  injustice  of  the  employers. 
' '  I  am.no  lover  of  trade  unions, ' '  says  the 
Bishop  of  Manchester,  "hut  they  have 
been  forced  upon  the  working  classes  by 
the  inequitable  useof  the  power  of  capital." 


.  .  .  as  it  was,  the  defeat  proved  better  than  a 
victory.  It  was  the  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  the  Amalgamated  Society,  which  rapidly  re- 
covered its  io.-.ses,  and  at  the  end  of  two  yc  rs 
was  stronger  than  ever."  Mr.  Thomas  Hug^.'  t, 
in  The  Century  for  May,  1384. 


CHAPTER   II. 

TRADE  UNIONS — THEIR   PROGRESS   AND   DEVELOPMENT. 


Attempts  to  crush  unionism — Hornby  v.  Close — Combination  made  legal — First  conference  of  union 
delegates — The  ShetKeld  outrages — The  Royal  Commission — Unequal  laws — Picketing — T^o 
Trade   Union  Acts. 


The  events  whose  Listory  has  been 
sketched  in  the  previous  chapter  show  that 
combinations  amongst  workmen  have  ex- 
isted from  a  remote  period,  as  well  as  indi- 
cate the  origin  of  trado  unions.  It  wi^s 
necessary  thus  to  tra<  e  the  historical  con- 
tinuity of  thesteps  that  led  lot  he  formation 
of  unions,  el.se  their  actual  objects  would 
not  be  clearly  defined;  the  difficulties  en- 
countered and  overcome  not  sufficiently 
appreciated  ;  the  basis  on  which  luiions  rest 
not  thoroughly  understood,  and  the  future 
of  such  institutions  not  readily  realized. 

"  We  watch  the  wheels  of  Nature's  mazy  plan. 
And  learn  the  future  from  the  past  of  man." 

When,  however,  the  existence  of  unions 
became  a  fact,  their  succeeding  career  was 
by  no  means  smooth.  Every  concession 
had  to  be  wrung  from  the  legislature  l>y 
the  severest  struggles,  and  there  was  always 
a  readiness  shown  to  hamper  or  destroy 
them. 

The  power  with  Avhich  it  was  thought 
unionism  could  V)e  crushed  wa.s  very  slowly 
withdrawn.  It  was  not  until  18.24  that 
combinations  of  working  men  were  rendered 
legal  for  "  improving  wages  and  reducing 
ihe  hours  of  labor  "  and  for  these  two  pur- 


poses alone.  The  statute  which  gave  this 
power,  however,  was  anything  but  satis- 
factory. The  word  of  the  master  was 
always  to  be  taken  in  preference  to  that  of 
the  servant  ;  the  judges  decided  that  all 
combinations  which  were  "in  restraint  of 
trade"  were  criminal  ;  and  the  Queen's 
Bench  in  1867  confirmed  the  decision  of 
the  magistrates  {vide  Hornby  v.  Close),  that 
societies  having  rules  enabling  them  so  to 
act,  could  hohi  no  property,  not  even  for 
benevolent  and  charitable  purposes.  This 
decision  ha<l  reference  to  boiler-makera 
and  iron  sliip-builders,  aud  created  a  great 
sensation.  More  than  one  London  new.s- 
paper  declared  a  belief  and  expressed  a 
hope  that  by  it  unionism  had  received 
its  death  blow.  The  trade  unionists, 
too,  were  naturally  alarnud  ;  but  they 
were  not  ])repared  to  see  destroyed  an 
institution  which  had  been  builded  up 
with  ."o  much  trouble,  and  in  the  face  of  so 
many  difficulties.  A  conference  of  trade 
union  delegates  was  convened  l)y  the 
"Working  Men's  Association,"  and  met  in 
St.  Martin's  Hall,  on  March.".,  6,  7,  H,  1H(;7, 
to  consider  the  matter,  as  well  as  the  Koyal 
Commi.'-Hion  loiiKpiire  into  the  trade  uuioua 
that  the  Government  of  the  day  had  just 


14 


appointed.*  No  such  conference  had  ever 
been  held  belore.  There  were  present 
delegates  from  sixty-five  London  societies, 
twelve  provincial  trade  councils,  and 
twenty- live  provincial  trade  societies.  This 
conference  was  the  forerunner  of  the  trade 
unions  congress  that  is  now  such  a  prom- 
inent annual  public  event.  The  delegates 
were  unanimous  in  calling  for  an  immediate 
alteration  of  the  law,  and  so  determined 
Wi\s  their  aspect  that  they  refused  to  accept 
jks  a  compromise  the  measure  intrpductd 
into  the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Neale, 
M.  P.,  for  Oxford,  having  for  its  object  a 
temporary  protection  to  certain  of  the 
societies.  On  the  other  hand,  a  resolution 
was  passed,  a  bill  was  drafted,  and  a  peti- 
tion adopted,  which  I  here  reproduce.  Re- 
solved— 

"That,  taking  into  consideration  the  late 
decision  of  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  in 
reference  to  trade  unions,  depriving  them 
of  all  legal  recognition,  and  of  protection 
for  their  funds  ;  further,  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  benevolent  purposes  for 
which  the  bulk  of  such  funds  are  subscribed, 
this  meeting  of  trade  delegates  is  of  opinion 
that  it  is  the  bounden  dixty  of  the  legisla- 
ture to  enact  such  laws  as  will  protect  their 
funds,  and  thereby  jjlace  the  members  of 
those  societies  on  tliesame  footing  in  respect 
to  their  funds  as  all  other  classes  of  her 
Majesty's  subjects ;  and  also  bearing  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  working  of  these 
trade  unions  are  to  be  inquired  into  by  a 
Royal  Commission,  and  that  legislation  in 
respect  to  them  may  hereafter  take  place, 
we  consider  that  a  bill  of  the  following 
nature  will  answer  that  purpose  : — 


"Whereas  combinations  or  associations 
of  the  operative  classes  for  the  protection 
of  their  trade  interests  are  recognized  by 
law  ;  and  whereas  it  appears  that  no  ade- 
quate security  is  by  law  provided  for  the 
safety  of  the  funds  collected  by  such  asso- 
ciations ;  be  it  therefore  enacted,  etc.,  etc. 

' '  That  the  same  protection  shall  be  given 
to  all  members  of  such  combinations  or 
associations  of  the  operative  classes  in  re- 
spect to  the  funds  collected  for  the  purposes 
of  the  protection  of  their  trade  interests  as 
are  afforded  to  the  members  ©f  Friendly 
Societies  by  the  Friendly  Societies  Act ; 
and  shall  be  recoverable  from  defaulters 
in  the  same  way  and  manner  as  is  pro- 
vided for  in  the  said  Friendly  Societies' 
Act ;  and  that  their  protection  in  re- 
spect  to    such  funds    shall    be    effectual 

*The  object  of  tlie  commission  vr&s  "to  inquire 
Into  the  organization  and  rules  of  trade  unions 
wid  otiier  associations,  whether  of  workmen  or 
employers,  and  into  the  effect  produced  by  such 
unions  and  associations  on  the  workmen  and 
employers  respectively,  and  the  relation  between 
workmen  and  employers  and  on  the  trade  and 
industry  of  the  country." 


whether  such  associations  cliall  be  -on- 
nected  with  Friendly,  Benefit,  or  i'rovident 
Societies,  or  otherwise,  and  shall  extend  to 
all  such  funds  as  are  not  to  be  devoted  to 
the  promotion  of  objects  criminal  iu  their 
own  nature,  but  that  nothing  herein  con- 
tained shall  entitle  the  office-bearers  of  such 
associations  or  combinations  to  sue  any  of 
their  members  for  arrear  of  contributions, 
nor  in  any  respect  to  coerce  any  ind"vidual 
to  become  a  member  of  such  assc;.iatioD  , 
they  shall  give  any  further  legal  recogni- 
tion (except  as  hereinbefore  provided  for) 
to  such  societies  as  is  already  given  ia  Law. 
This  Act  to  have  effect  until  the  end  of  the 
Parliamentary  session  next  after  the  Royal 
Commission  of  Inquiry  on  Trade  L'nions 
has  given  in  its  report." 

The  petition  was  as  follows  : — 

The  Humble  Petition  of  the  Undersigned  Mem- 
bers of  the  Society  of  ,  assemblin;/ 
or  meeting  at  {or  in)  ,  in  the 
Parish  of                     ,  County : 

Humbly  sheweth, — 
That  your  petitioners  have  seen  with  deep 
concern  that  by  the  late  decision  of  the 
Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  in  the  case  of 
Hornby  r.  Close,  this  organization  of  work- 
ing men,  in  common  with  nearly  two 
thousand  similar  Associations  throughout 
the  United  Kingdom,  are  deprived  of  all 
legal  recognition,  and  of  protection  for  our 
funds. 

That  such  funds  having  been  contributed, 
not  merely  for  what  we  consider  the  legiti- 
mate protection  of  our  trade  interests,  but 
also,  and  principally,  for  mutual  help  and 
support  in  seasons  of  adversity  ;  your  Peti- 
tioners humbly  submit  that  such  a  state  ot 
the  law  is  an  injustice  to  us  as  members  of 
the  community,  will  tend  to  foster  fraud 
and  to  discourage  provident  habits  ;  and  is, 
therefore,  extremely  undesirable  to  estab- 
lish or  maintain. 

Your  Petitioners  therefore  humbly  pray 
your  Honorable  House  forthwith  to  enact 
such  a  law  as  will  give  to  us,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  all  such  Societies,  the  same  protec- 
tion for  their  funds  as  are  enjoyed  by  all 
other  classes  of  her  Majesty's  subjects 
against  fraud  and  dishonesty. 

And  your  Petitioners  will  pray,  etc. 

There  were  many  decisions  given,  too,  by 
judges  and  minor  magistrates  that  ,'ihowed 
distinctly  employers  and  operatives  were 
not  equal  when  standing  before  the  seat  of 
judgment.  The  law  did  not  seem  particu- 
larly just  that  would  not  allow  men  to 
"picket"  iu  the  tailor's  strike,  but  which 
allowed  the  m;'Sters  to  address  a  circular  to 
their  fellow-employers  (being  members  of 
the  Master  Tailors'  Association),  asking 
them  not  to  employ  certain  unionist  work- 
men named  therein  ;  nor  does  that  decision 
(on  the  same  dispute)  seem  a  very  wise  one 


15 


■whiol),  acknowledging  that  the  simple  act 
of  one  uiiiu  persuading  another  is  perfectly 
legal,  \et  stated  that,  because  several  men 
oigauized  themselves  to  inform  workmen 
that  such  and  such  a  shop  was  on  strjke, 
they  were  deemed  guilty  of  an  offence 
against  the  Jaw.  Nor  couJd  right-minded 
men  be  Itiought  to  see  the  justice  ot  that 
law  w  hicli,  Avhile  it  only  tined  the  master 
for  breach  of  contract,  imprisoned  the  ser- 
vant lor  the  same  offence.  It  was  not  until 
1871  that  an  Act  was  passed  remedying 
these  defects.  The  law  on  the  subject  even 
then  wa-s,  unfortunately,  very  ambiguous 
and  imperfect.  The  unjust,  cruel,  and 
blundenng  imprisonment  of  the  gas  stokers 
showed  that  there  was  still  plenty  of  scope 
for  cunning  lawyers  when  pleading  to  an 
excited  jury  and  before  a  prejudiced  judge. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  whole  tendency  of 
legislation  for  the  men  by  the  masters  has 
ever  oeen  to  keep  wages  low.  Indeed,  that 
has  been  the  avowed  object  of  the  laws 
which  have  been  passed.  To  counteract 
this,  the  unions  were  formed  to  keep  them 
high,  and  we  have  the  authority  of  a  man 
who  believed  in  a  high  moral  standard  that 
such  conduct  was  praiseworthy.  "  If  it 
were  possible, "  wrote  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  "for 
the  working  classes,  by  combining  among 
themselves,  to  raise  or  keep  up  the  general 
rate  of  wages,  it  need  hardly  be  said  that 
this  would  be  a  thing  not  to  be  punished, 
but  to  be  welcomed  and  rejoiced  at."  The 
further  improvements  in  the  law  in  this 
resptct  will  be  notictd  in  due  course. 

At  this  time  trade  unions  were  regarded 
unfavorably  by  a  large  portion  of  the  public, 
in  con.sequence  of  what  was  known  as  the 
Sheffield  outrages.  "  In  order  to  compel 
men  to  join  their  unions  and  comply  with 
the  rules,  a  system  had  been  adopted  of 
taking  away  the  tools  and  driving  bands  of 
independent  or  defaulting  workmen,  and 
this  .system  had  become  so  universal  that 
when  tools  or  bands  had  been  stolen,  the 
sufferers  applied  systematically  to  the  sec- 
retary of  the  union  to  know  on  what  terms 
the  lost  articles  would  be  restored.  But 
the  utiinnists  were  not  long  content  with 
this  e.xercise  of  their  power,  and  proceeded 
to  the  e.xtcution  of  a  series  ot  outrages  and 
crimes  which  are  perhaps  almost  without 
parallel  in  the  history  of  communities  sup- 
posed to  he  civilized.  Masters  and  work- 
men who  refused  or  failed  to  comply  with 
their  rules,  were  snlyccted  to  treatment  of 
the  most  diabolical  character.  Their  cattle 
were  hamstrung,  or  otherwise  mutilated, 
their  ricks  set  on  fire.  They  were  shot  at, 
and  in  one  instance  a  master  was  kilkd  by 
as  air  gun  fired  into  a  crowded  room.  Gun-  j 
powder  wa-s  usually  employed  in  the  case  of 
obnoxiousworkmen.  Canislersweietniown  i 
down  chimneys,  bottles  filled  with  the  ex-  ' 
plosive,  to  which  lighted  fuses  were  at-  ' 
tached,  were  thrown  through  windows  of  i 


the  workmen's  dwelling-houses,  thus  ex* 
posing  women  and  children  to  its  terrible 
effects.  It  was  a  common  practice  to  place 
gunpowder  in  grinding  troughs,  which  ex- 
ploded as  soon  as  work  was  commenced." 
Injustice  to  the  great  body  of  woikmenat 
Sheffield,  it  should  be  stated  that  these  out- 
rages were  committed  by  a  very  few  per- 
sons, and  were  at  all  times  execrated  by 
the  great  body  of  the  working  classes.  Out 
of  sixty  trade  unions,  then  in  existence, 
twelve  were  implicated  in  these  outrages, 
and  of  these  it  was  shown  on  inquiry  that 
the  greater  proportion  of  the  members  knew 
nothing  of  the  actions  of  their  officers. 

The  result  of  the  Sheffield  outrages  was, 
that  a  Eoyal  Commission  was  appointed  in 
1867  to  inquire  in  to  the  matter  and  into  the 
condition  of  trade  unions  generally.  The 
conference  of  delegates  already  alluded  to 
urged  upon  the  Government  that  a  trade 
unionist  representative  should  sit  upon  the 
commission.  The  request  was  refuted,  but 
ultimately  a  concession  was  made  that  Mr. 
Frederic  Harrison,  barrister -at -law,  a 
well-known  advocate  of  unionism  and  pos-> 
sessing  the  confidence  of  the  unionists, 
should  sit  on  the  commission,  and  he  rend- 
ered signal  services  in  that  position.  The 
trade  unionists  also  asked  to  be  present  at 
theinquiryto  "watch"  their  interest.  Thia 
also  was  refused,  but  the  point  was  imma- 
terial as  the  House  of  Lords  amended  the 
constitution  of  the  commission  by  throwing 
its  doors  open  to  the  press  and  the  public. 
The  disclosures  before  the  commission  are 
now  a  matter  of  history.  The  authors  of  the 
outrages  were  discovered  only  on  their  own 
confession,  made  under  a  promise  of  par- 
don, and  thus  they  escaped  punishment. 

The  good  points  of  trade  unions  were 
also  fully  placed  before  the  commission  by 
the  best  of  the  unions'  secretaries,  whose 
evidence  will  well  repay  perusal  at  this  day. 
Altogether  the  inquiry  raised  trade  unions 
in  the  estimation  of  the  public.  It  was 
seen  that,  purged  of  their  impurities,  they 
would  be  excellent  institutions,  and  the 
legislature  set  to  work  to  give  them  legal 
status.  In  1871  the  Trade  Union  Act  was 
passed,  making  trade  unions  legal  societies, 
and  preventing  the  members  from  being 
liable  to  pro.secution  for  conspiracy,  an 
offence  for  vv-hich,  in  days  gone  by,  so  many 
had  suffered  imprisonment ;  while  by  an 
interpretation  given  to  Ku.ssell  Gurney's 
Act  of  1868,  due  protection  was  given  to 
the  funds  of  the  society.  In  short,  trade 
unions  were  now  acknowledged  to  be  insti- 
tutions of  the  country.  They  bad  hence- 
forth a  charter  of  liberty  andundcrthe  light 
and  freedom  so  given  to  them  they  began  to 
flourish,  and,  as  will  lie  shown  in  the  suc- 
ceeding pages,  have  continued  to  flourish, 
to  the  welfare  of  the  working  classes,  and 
the  general  benefit  of  the  whole  common- 
wealth. 


16 


CHAPTER  III. 

TRADES    UNIONS — THEIR   OBJECTS. 

Kquality  of  bargaining  power — To  raise  wages— Protection — Sick  benefits,  etc. — Mutual  suppKJrt— 
Moral  impr'^vement  of  the  workman — Executive  of  unions  prevents  strikes — Unselfishneaa 
of  unionism  —  Trade  unions  congresses — Their  influence  —  The  International  —  The  Paris 
conference. 


The  foregoing  account  of  the  origin  of 
trade  unions  is  almost  an  answer  to  the 
question,  "What  are  the  objects  of  trade 
unions?"  The  question  must  at  all  times 
be  difficult  to  answer  in  a  sentence,  be- 
cause the  scope  of  the  objects  of  unionism 
grows  with  the  growth  of  unionism.  At 
hrst  they  were  merely  a  protection  against 
contracts  being  too  unjust,  too  heavy  to  be 
borne.  They  now  demand — and  rightly 
so — that  contracts  shall  be  fair.  Mr.  Dun- 
ning says  the  object  of  a  trade  union  is  "  to 
ensure  the  freedom  of  exchange  with  regard 
to  labor,  by  putting  the  workman  on  some- 
thing like  an  equal  position  in  bargaining 
with  his  employer."  Professor  Fawcett 
takes  a  similar  view  Trade  unions  are 
formed,  he  says,  so  "  that  the  laborer  may 
have  the  same  chance  of  selling  his  labor 
dearly  as  the  master  has  of  buying  it 
cheaply."  At  a  later  date,  the  same  au- 
thority declares  the  intention  of  the  men  to 
have  been  "to  protect  themselves  against 
Tvhat  are  supposed  to  be  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  their  employers."  So,  too,  Mr. 
Trederic  Harrison  believes  that,  at  any  rate, 
"  the  all-important  question  is  how  equality 
is  to  be  established,"  and  he  represents  the 
placing  of  labor  on  the  same  footing  as  cap- 
ital as  the  great  desideratum.  Mr.  W.  T. 
Thornton,  however,  admits  of  no  such  ob- 
ject as  the  abstract  idea  of  equality,  The 
object  of  unionism,  he  maintains,  is  not 
merely  to  free  men  from  the  dictation  of 
their  employers,  but  to  change  positions, 
and  to  dictate  ;  and  that  "their  rule  is  to 
get  as  much  as  they  can,  and  to  keep  as 
much  as  they  can  get. ' ' 

Although  the  evidence  given  before  the 
Trade  Union  Commission  by  some  of  the 
mo.st  intelligent  and  trustworthy  of  the 
trade  union  secretaries  endorses  such  views 
as  those  expressed  by  Mr.  Thornton,  yet  the 
history  of  the  movement  shows  that  al- 
though unions  may  have  been  founded 
principally,  if  not  solely,  as  protective  as- 
.sociations,  and  have  developed  to  some  ex- 
tent into  aggressive  associations,  yet  they 
have  long  ago  embraced  other  features  in 
their  objects.  They  now  aim  at  every 
means  that  will  raise  workmen  to  the  best 
position  it  is  possible  for  them  to  obtain  . 

An  impartial  inquirer,  then,  will  take  a 


higher  view  of  the  object  of  trade  unionism 
than  Mr.  Thornton  believes  in,  without 
being  liable  to  a  charge  of  sentimentalism. 
The  object  of  a  trade  union  is  a  wide  one, 
viz.,  to  do  all  that  can  be  done  to  better  in 
every  respect  the  condition  of  its  members. 
The  raising  of  the  rate  of  wages  is  un- 
doubtedly the  principal  means  to  that  end, 
but  to  say  that  it  is  the  "sole  aim"  is  to 
mistake  the  one  for  the  other.  Based  upon 
union,  the  efforts  of  these  organizations 
are  collective,  and  the  results  general,  not 
special.  Unlike  most  kinds  of  individual 
effort,  the  object  is  not  to  assist  men  to  lift 
themselves  out  of  their  class,  as  if  they  were 
ashamed  of  it,  or  as  if  manual  labor  were  a 
disgrace,  but  to  raise  the  class  itself  in 
physical  well-being  and  self-estimation. 

No  encyclopaedia  has  yet  devoted  an  ar- 
ticle to  trade  unions,  and  yet  trade  union- 
ism is  an  accomplished  fact.  They  are 
built  on  a  rock — a  firm,  sound,  sub.stantial 
basis.  They  cannot  be  annihilated.  If  they 
were  done  away  with  to-day,  they  would 
spring  up  again  to-morrow,  the  same  as  in 
the  celebrated  dispute  with  Messrs.  Piatt, 
of  Oldham,  when  the  men  were  starved 
into  submission,  and  were  obliged  to  give 
up  their  union,  yet  they  re-joined  as  soon  as 
they  were  at  work.  Although  unionism  in 
Lancashire  languished  during  the  cotton 
famine,  it  sprang  into  life  with  renewed 
vigor  when  the  crisis  was  over.  It  would 
be  well  if  the  employers  at  present  endeav- 
oring to  crush  out  unionism  amongst  the 
workmen  would  take  warning  from  these 
facts.  It  is  a  mistake  to  say  that  unions 
are  the  cause  of  hostility  between  labor 
and  capital  ;  they  are  the  result  of  that  hos- 
tility. It  will  be  well  for  the  employers  to 
remember  this.  It  will  be  well  for  them  to 
realize  the  fact  that  unions  will  not  decrease 
in  power,  as  some  persons  fondly  hope. 

Wherever  there  has  been  intelligence, 
there  has  been  combination.  Professor 
Fawcett  pointed  out,  in  1871,  that  there 
was  no  combination  amongst  the  agricul- 
tural laborers,  because  they  were  "too  ig- 
norant," and  because  there  was  a  "want  of 
intelligence."  They  quietly  submitted  in 
North  Herefordshire  to  a  pittance  of  nine 
or  ten  shillings  a  week,  while  their  fellow- 
laborers    in    Warwickshire    were    getting 


r, 


twelve  shillings  a  week,  and  probaVily  they 
were  so  inured  to  suffering  that  they 
wonld  never  have  complained,  had  they 
not  been  persistently  subjected  to  pitiless, 
relentless,  and  objectless  cruelty.  It  is  a 
fact  that  the  most  intelligent  of  our  arti- 
sans are  the  most  earnest  advocates  of 
trade  unions,  and  these  have  not  been  slow 
to  instruct  their  less  fortunate  brethren  in 
the  advantages  of  unionism. 

The  power  of  trade  unions  will  increase 
with  experience,  and  their  intluence  will 
extend  as  education  becomes  general.  It 
is  for  employers  to  say  Avhether  they  will 
bow  to  a  necessity  graciously,  or.  as  hither- 
to, goad  to  the  last  extremity.  Day  by 
day  the  men  are  becoming  les.s  and  less  de- 
pendent upon  the  caprice  of  employers. 
Their  demand  for  just  laws  cannot  longer 
be  disregarded,  and  even  now  they  are 
able  to  show  that  they  are  as  competent  as 
any  other  class  to  take  care  of  their  own 
personal  habits  and  requirements. 

The  unions,  formed  in  the  manner  de- 
scribed, spread  rapidly.  They  did  not 
long  confine  themselves  to  the  villages  or 
towns  in  which  they  began,  but  the 
'  'unions"  in  various  places'  'amalgamated, ' ' 
and  thus  irfluenced  large  areas.  They  ex- 
tended their  ramification  still  wider,  and 
they  embraced  the  whole  kingdom,  and 
even  obtained  a  footing  in  America  and 
Australia. 

No  trade  union  is  siibsidized.  The  funds 
ari>-e  from  tlie  contributions  of  members. 
In  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Kngineers, 
the  contribution  generally  is  one  shilling 
A  week,  and  if  a  man  be  in  arrears,  he  is 
suspended  from  the  benefits  of  the  society 
— unless,  indeed,  he  is  out  of  work,  or  in 
distres-sed  circumstances. 

No  sketch  of  a  trade  ui^ion  can  give  any 
idea  of  the  scrupulous  care  that  is  taken  to 
do  that  which  is  lawful  and  right.  The 
code  of  rules  of  a  trade  union  bristles  with 
judicious  safeguards.  The  ideas  that  a 
strike  depends  upon  the  ipxc  dixit  of  a  paid 
agitator,  and  that  if  the  men  were  to  vote 
by  ballot  on  the  question,  they  would  never 
consent  to  a  strike,  are  conceived  by  those 
only  who  do  not  know  what  a  trade  union 
is.  In  most  cases  a  strike  is  the  result  of 
action  taken  by  the  men  themselves  in  each 
district,  the  executive  having  more  power  to 
prevent  a  strike  than  to  initiate  one.  So 
re<'*ntly  as  the  last  cotton  strike,  the  exec- 
utive did  all  they  could  to  prevent  the 
strike,  but  the  operatives  rushed  into  it  in 
spite  of  the  protestations  of  all  the  leaders. 

As  a  proof  of  the  care  taken  to  avoid 
strikes,  may  be  mentioned  that  .several  of 
the  most  powerful  unions  in  the  kingdom, 
have  made  a  rule  that  in  no  case  shall  aid 
be  given  Uj  any  local  branch,  unless  it  can 
be  proved  that  betbre  going  out  a  bona 
fidr  offer  of  arbitration  has  been  made  to 
the  employer.     The  secretaries,  or  execu- 


tive, too,  always  warn  their  union  to  avoid 
causes  of  dispute.  "It  was  confidently  ex- 
pected,"' says  Mr.  Thos.  Hnghe.s,  in  the 
Century,  ''that  strikes  would  grow  in  num- 
bers and  intensity,  as  the  unions  spread 
over  larger  areas  :'  but  "of  late  years  the 
number  of  these  strikes  has  notably  dimin- 
ished ;  and  every  year  the  chances  of 
such  lamentable  contests  seem  likely  to 
decrease."  It  should  be  noted  further, 
that  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  at  the  Trade 
Union  Congress,  and  Mr.  (ieorge  Howell, 
in  the  Contemporart/  Ji'rvierc,  pointed  out 
that  "inl88'2,  the  Amalgamated  Engineers, 
with  an  income  of  £1*24,000,  and  a  cash 
balance  of  £168,000,  expended  in  disputes 
altogether,  including  the  support  they  gave 
to  other  trades,  the  sum  of  £895  only.  That 
was  fiir  less  than  one  per  cent,  of  their  in- 
come. The  Iron  founders  spent,  out  of  an 
income  of  £4'2.0(IO,  £'214  only  ;  and  the 
Amalgamated  Carpenters,  who  had  had  a 
number  of  disputes,  and  hr.d  been  engaged 
in. strikes,  spent  £'2i)00  only,  out  of  £50,000, 
which  was  only  four  per  cent. :  the  Tailors, 
with  £18,000,  spent  £5G5  only  ;  and  the 
Stonemasons,  with  11.000  members  in 
union — the  report  .seems  to  say  more  in 
sorrow  than  pride — spent  nothing  in  strikes. 
During  six  years  of  unexampled  bad  trade, 
reduction  of  wages,  and  industrial  disturb- 
ance, there  were  a  great  many  strikes,  and 
during  that  period,  seven  great  trade  socie- 
ties expended  in  the  settlement  of  dis- 
putes £162.000  only,  out  of  a  capital  of 
nearly  £2.000,000.  Last  year  these  socie- 
ties, with  an  aggregate  income  of  £:?:}0,000, 
and  a  cash  balance  of  £360,000,  expended 
altogether,  in  matters  of  dispute,  about 
£5000,  which  was  not  two  per  cent,  upon 
the  whole  of  their  income,  and  not  one  per 
cent,  upon  their  total  available  resources 
for  the  year."  The  rules  of  unions,  too, 
are  so  framed  that  the  work  of  the  officers 
of  the  local  union  is  not  interfered  with  by 
the  duties  of  their  office.  Thus  no  member 
must  call  on  an  ofticer  when  he  is  at  hif 
ordinary  work  under  a  j>enalty  of  one 
shilling  ;  and  there  are  many  wise  and 
prudent  regulations,  the  most  important  of 
which  willbe  pointed  out  in  due  course. 

A  remarkable  feature  in  trade  unioni.sm, 
is  its  thorough  un.selfishness.  The  various 
societies  are  not  opposed  to  each  other;  in- 
deed, they  help  one  another.  I'very  a.ssist- 
ance  is  given  to  those  who  are  ]»repared  to 
.sacrifice  whatever  benefits  are  to  l)e  derived 
from  living  in  this  country,  by  emigrating 
to  another.  W'oikingmcn  r«ali/.e  the  fact 
that  by  nome  gf>iug,  <ill  are  benefited.  Nf)t 
only  do  they  cheerfully  submit  to  the  ordi- 
nary contributions  of  an  entrance  fee.  and 
a  weekly  subscription,  but  they  are  ever 
ready  to  pay  an  extra  levy,  sometimes  for 
their  own  trade  purpost  s,  but  very  often 
for  ulterior  objects,  such  jus  assisting  Mr. 
riim-soU  in  his  agitation.     The  noble  way 


18 


in  which  almost  every  auion  helped  the 
agricultural  laborers,  and  in  which  some  of 
them  subscribed  to  the  relief  fund  for  the 
famine  in  India,  wnll  not  easily  be  forgot- 
ten. This  sacrifice  by  the  individual  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community,  contrasts 
favorably  with  the  thoroughly  selfish  pro- 
gramme of  the  National  Federation  of  Asso- 
ciated Employers,  and  probably  accounts 
for  the  general  tendency  to  victory  on  the 
side  of  the  men  whenever  disputes  arise. 
The  employers  do  not  try  to  help  each 
»ther.  They  are  in  opposition  to  each  other. 
Their  motto  is,  "Each  for  himself,"  and 
they  aie  only  united  in  their  attempts  to 
crush  the  men.  The  men,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  worth  repeating,  sink  all  indi- 
vidual feelings,  and  help  each  other  in  a 
thoroughly  practical  and  praiseworthy 
manner. 

It  remains  to  point  out  that  the  principle 
of  unionism  is  extending  beyond  individual 
trades.  In  all  large  towna  there  are  trade 
councils,  formed  of  del^ates  from  various 
unions.  These  councils  look  after  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  the  unionists  in  the  area 
represented,  and  an  attentive  reader  of  the 
public  prints  cannot  have  failed  to  notice 
that  they  are  as  ready  to  censure  the  action 
of  union  members  who  have  done  wrong  as 
to  support  the  action  of  those  who  are  in  the 
right.  The  growth  of  unionism  .shows  it- 
self still  further  in  the  annual  congress 
which  is  now  held.  This  is  a  tnoroughly 
national  institution,  and  its  arrangemente 
allow  of  the  widest  possible  latitude  in  the 
subjects  for  discussion.  It  is  now  sixteen 
years  since  the  "Labor  Parliament"  began 
(at  Manchester)  its  annual  sittings,  and  if 
there  were  no  other  evidence  of  the  great 
good  unionism  accomplishes,  the  work  of 
the  Trade  Union  Congress  would  be  ampie 
testimony.  Many  most  beneficent  acts  of 
Parliament  are  directly  due  to  the  action  of 
the  congress,  and  others  have  been,  and 
others  again  are  being,  improved  by  the 
same  influence.  The  Employers'  Liability 
Bill  if  a  case  in  point,  and  testifies  also  to 
the  persistent  industry  and  ability  with 
which  all  obstacles  are  removed  and  all  dif- 
ficulties overcome.  The  extension  of  the 
Factory  Acts  to  workshops  is  another  in- 
stance, as  is  also  the  Act  for  the  better  Reg- 
ulation of  Mines;  while  the  protection  af- 
forded to  wages  by  alterations  in  the 
Bankrupt  Law  is  also  due  to  the  direct 
influence  of  the  parliamentary  committee 
of  the  congress.  At  present  it  is  exerting 
its  powers  to  have  a  proper  inspection  of 
boilers ,  a  proof  of  the  competency  of  engine 
drivers;  the  protection  of  merchant  seamen, 
and  a  great  many  other  things.  In  addi- 
tion, the  congress,  as  has  been  said,  exerts 
its  influence  on  many  questions  that  may 
noi,  at  first  sight  appear  really  "  labor  ques- 
tions." While  dusavowing  party  politics, 
it  irges  that  workmen  should  bs  ea&aa- 


chised  ;  that  the  Corrupt  Practices  Ace 
should  cheapen  the  co.st  oi  elections,  so  that 
labor  may  have  a  chance  of  direct  represen- 
tation in  Parliament;  that  alterations  in  the 
criminal  law  shall  not  afiect  workmen  dif- 
ferently to  other  people  ;  and  that  artisans 
shall  be  jurymen,  factory  inspectors,  and 
otherwise  act  on  those  occasions  wherein 
the  artisan  and  the  operative  are  as  much 
concerned  as  anybody  else.  Added  to 
which  it  should  be  observed  that  the  an- 
nual gathering  together  of  the  pickeil 
unionists  of  the  country  must  tend  to 
strengthen  the  feeling  of  brotherhood 
amongst  them  which  is  the  basis  on  whicU 
unionism  rests.* 

It  is  easy  to  see  witherward  this  tendency 
points.  From  a  national  congress  to  an  in- 
ternational congress  is  a  very  short  step. 
The  Trade  Union  Congress  of  187!>  passed  a 
reselution  in  favor  of  a  federation  of  all  the 
trades  ofthe  United  Kingdom,  and  thorough 
unionists  desire  to  see  a  federation  of  all 
the  trades  throughout  the  world.  An  in- 
ternational congress  was  successfully  at- 
tempted some  years  ago,  and  failed  at  last 
only  because  of  the  socialism  so  character- 
istic ofthe  continental  ouiritr,  who  dreams 
of  an  exterminating  war  against  a  class,  in- 
stead of  seeking  to  do  that  which  the  Inter- 
national Society  originally  intended  to  do, 
viz.,  to  make  trade  unionism  cosmopolitau 
instead  of  national. 

The  experience  of  the  late  International 
Association  » ill  enable  the  promoters  of  a 
new  one,  inevitable  sooner  or  later,  to  ar- 
range matters  upon  a.s  sound  a  basis  as  are 
trade  unions  in  this  country.     The  leading 


*When  the  Trade  Union  Congress  first  started, 
it  was  made  the  medium  of  addresses  in  favor  of 
the  principles  of  unioni.<m  by  gentlemen  of  posi- 
tion, not  members  of  any  union.  It  was  soon 
seen  that  these  addresses,  however  interesting, 
were  not  of  that  practical  business  character  for 
which  the  conKress  met,  and  were  delivered  to  a 
body  of  men  who  obviously  required  no  proof  of 
the  principles  they  held  ,  and  the  practice  was  at 
length  forbidden  by  a  standing  order '  'that  papers 
in  defence  of  trade  unions  are  unnecessary  " 
Facilities,  however,  are  always  given  for  ad- 
dresses on  general  subjects  affecting  labor,  by 
competent  authorities,  at  times  which  do  not  in- 
terfere with  the  business  of  the  congress.  Anotbet 
and  an  important  point  that  was  found  torequira 
alteration  was  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  con 
gress  vae  regulations  for  the  admission  of  dele- 
gates were  not  sufficiently  stringent,  or,  more 
correctly  speaking,  were  not  carried  out  with 
proper  rigor.  A  peculiar  circumstance  brought 
the  niatter  to  a  crisis.  The  paid  agitators  of  a 
"Fair  Trade"  organization  hadottereil  their  ser- 
vices as  delegates  gratuitously  to  certain  unions, 
and  theoe,  actuated  by  a  false  economy,  accepted 
those  services.  The  agitators  presented  them- 
selves for  admission  at  the  congress  of  1881  (held 
in  London),  butafter  some  discussion  were  ex- 
pelled— the  rule  that  delegates  should  be  for- 
mally elected,  and  their  expenses  paid  by  the  so- 
ciety which  sent  them,  being  on  this  occasion 
carried  out,  despite  precedent:  and  the  matter 
was  finally  set  at  rest  by  a  resolution  "that  no 
one  should  be  eligible  as  a  delegate  whose  ex- 
penses are  paid  by  private  individuaLs,  or  by  an;' 
institution  not  Sana   nde  trade   unioos  or  tiade 


19 


trade  unionists  in  England  realize  the  fact, 
and  are  not  afraid  to  express  it.  The  germ 
of  the  organization  is  present  in  the  foreign 
branches  of  some  of  the  largest  unions,  and 
it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  working- 
men  here  to  assist  their  brethren  in  dis- 
putes abroad.  To  almost  all  the  meetings 
of  the  Trade  L'uiou  Congress  come  mes- 
sages from  their  continental  friends.  In 
1878  it  was  from  the  "  International  Labor 
Union,"  in  1879  it  was  from  the  Trade 
Unions  of  Germany.  In  1881  the  workmen 
of  Switzerland  similarly  approached  their 
English  friends ;  and  in  1883  came  an  invi^ 
tation  from  Paris  that  was  cordially  ac- 
cepted. The  friendly  feeling  towards  each 
other  of  workmen  in  different  countries, 
and  the  international  relationships  that  are 
springing  up,  were  illustrated  in  1874  and 
in  1882  by  the  visit  to  England  of  deputa- 
tions from  the  railway  servants  of  France 
and  Belgium ;  and  still  more  recently  by  the 
reciprocal  visits  of  the  London  and  Paris 
cabmen. 

This  noble  sentiment  is  peculiar  to  work- 
men. The  employers  have  not  yet  learned 
to  love  one  another.  It  is  a  sentiment, 
however,  that  is  rapidly  spreading,  and  in 
high  qnarters.  Professor  Thorold  Rogers, 
in  his  admirable  work  so  often  quoted, 
says,  "I  confess  that  I  look  forward  to  the 
international  union  of  labw  partnerships 
as  the  best  prospect  the  world  has  of  coerc- 
ing those  hateful  instincts  of  government, 
all  alike  irresponsible  and  indifferent,  by 
which  nations  are  perpetually  armed 
against  each  other,  to  the  infinite  detri- 
ment, loss,  and  demoralization  of  all." 

In  response  to  the  invitation  of  1883, 
just  referred  to,  the  Trade  Unions  Congress 
empowered  Mr.  E.  W.  Bailey,  Mr.  John 
Burnett,  and  Mr.  lienry  Broadhurst  and 
others  to  attend  the  conference  in  Paris  of 
representative  working  men  of  France, 
Italy,  and  Spain,  and  I  will  allow  these 
gentlemen  to  express  their  views  on  the 
matter  in  their  own  words,  by  giving  a  con- 
densation of  their  official  report.  "The 
conference  was  presided  over  by  Messrs. 
Broadhurst  and  Shipton,  and  by  Miss 
Simcox,  and  by  the  French,  Italian,  and 
Spani-sh  delegates  successively.  Mr.  Bur- 
nett presided  over  the  first  public  meeting, 
and  \Irs.  Heatherley  over  the  third.  The 
French  procedure  in  business  is  different 
from  our  own.  They  discuss  a  question 
generally.  They  attempt  to  form  a  resolu- 
tion to  meet  the  expression  of  opinion 
given  in  debate.  So  far  as  our  experience 
went,  this  mode  is  not  so  expeditious  as  the 
custom  adopted  by  us,  of  drawing  up  a 
resolution  and  debating  it,  and  then 
amending  it  as  may  be  found  necessary. 
We  found  that  the  chief  work  lay  in  the 
debate  in  committee  over  the  terms  of  reso- 
lutions. At  one  time  it  looked  as  though 
the    conference    would  fail   in  this  work; 


however,  this  undesirable  event  was  avoid- 
ed, and  our  subsequent  business  became 
more  agreeable  and  easy.  The  point  of 
difference  was  the  extent  to  which  the 
State  should  be  asked  to  protect  labor. 

"Our  time  was  too  much  occupied  with 
meetings  to  admit  of  much  investigation 
into  the  number,  the  extent,  and  strength 
of  the  Paris  trade  unions;  but  so  far  as  w© 
could  gather,  it  appeared  that  the  compos- 
itors, the  engineers,  the  smiths,  and  the 
carpenters  pos.sessed  the  best  unions.  Even 
these  cannot  be  compared  w  ith  the  British 
unions  in  stability  or  discipline.  The  dif- 
ficulty appears  to  be  to  get  them  to  pay 
contributions  of  more  than  twopence  a 
week.  Even  this  sum  is  only  paid  by  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  the  men. 
The  masons'  delegate  stated  that  out  of 
some  thousands  of  ma.sons  who  accepted 
the  principles  of  their  society,  only  about 
sixty  men  were  regular  subscribers.  P'rom 
this  statement,  and  from  other  things 
which  came  under  our  observation,  it 
svould  appear  that  the  numerical  strength 
of  an  association  is  reckoned  upon  the  basis 
of  the  number  of  those  in  the  given  trade 
who  approve  of  the  objects  of  the  union, 
and  not  upon  the  number  of  those  who 
contribute  to  the  funds,  such  as  they  are. 
It  was  upon  this  loose  condition  of  things 
that  the  English  delegates  made  their 
strongest  attack,  by  stating  the  condition 
of  membership  in  Great  Britain,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  members  to  exert  themselves 
in  making  the  societies  more  solid  and 
numerous. 

"From  what  came  under  our  notice,  we 
are  of  opinion  that  the  condition  of  the 
workpeople  {i.e.,  the  mechanics)  in  Paris 
is  not  so  good  as  that  of  corresponding 
trades  in  Great  Britain.  We  met  an  Eng- 
lish ma#on  in  Paris,  who  is  engaged,  by  an 
English  firm  of  contractois,  at  the  erection 
of  a  Protestant  church.  He  infonned  as 
that  he  was  receiving  London  wages  (viz., 
ninepence  an  hour),  out  of  which  he  paid 
eighteen  francs  a  week  (15s.)  for  a  furnished 
room,  firing,  and  the  use  of  a  kitchen,  the 
latter  .shared  amongst  three  families.  A 
shoemaker,  who  was  a  delegate  at  the  con- 
ference, said  that  men  in  his  trade  were 
working  fourteen  hours  a  day  for  three  and 
a  half  francs  (2.s.  lliL).  These  and  similar 
statements  made  by  other  delegates,  in 
reference  to  some  of  the  provinctsof  France, 
would  seem  to  prove  that  tlie  condition  of 
other  French  workpeople  in  tlie  large  cen- 
tres and  at  large  works  is  anything  but  an 
enviable  one. 

"With  the  exception  of  a  wi.sh  to  rely 
upon  the  State  for  things  they  may  do  for 
them.selves,  we  did  not  object  to  the  gen- 
eral views  of  the  French  delegates  ou 
social  (luestio;..-*.  A  dele^^ate  from  the  car- 
penters (M.  Tortellier)was  an  exception. 
He  was  in  favor  of  revolution  by  force,  but 


iO 


we  were  informed  that  this  person  was 
under  a  sentence  of  imprisonment,  and 
would  serve  his  term  of  punishment  at  his 
convenience.  The  natural  inference  to  be 
drawn  from  this  st«itement  ^^a«  thathe  was, 
in  the  interest  of  the  reactionary  party, 
doing  his  best  to  cause  stril'e;  thus  ati'ord- 
ing  a  pretext  for  the  continuance  of  the 
French  law  relating  to  labor  combinations, 
which  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  is  a 
disgrace  to,  and  an  anomaly  in,  a  Republi- 
can nation. 

"The  speeches  of  the  French  delegates 
contained  constant  reference  to,  and  con- 
demnation of,  the  hourf/eois,  i.e.,  the  mid- 
dle classes.  It  would  appear  that  there  is 
little  or  no  intercourse  between  the  work- 
men and  the  middle  classes  in  France,  and 
the  former,  therefore,  look  upon  the  latter 
as  their  natural  enemies;  but  we  are  bound 
to  say  that  the  want  of  intimacy  is  not 
only  obvious  in  the  cases  referred  to,  bat  it 
is  also  true,  to  a  lamentable  extent,  be- 
tween the  various  groups  of  workmen 
themselves.  We  are  painfully  alive  to  the 
differences  between  workmen  in  our  own 
country,  and  to  its  deterrent  effect  upon 
our  thought  and  progress,  but,  happily,  it 
does  not  exist  here  to  such  a  degree  as  it 
does  in  France. 

"We  have  here  given  a  resume  of  our 
delegation.  We  do  not  now  offer  any  defi- 
nite opinions  as  to  the  ultimate  issue  of  the 
conference  in  relation  to  the  future  inter- 
course between  the  peoples  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  the  peoples  of  the  continen- 
tal nations.  We  hope  it  may  bear  some 
fruit.  We  are  assured  of  one  thing, 
and  that  is  that  the  Britiiih  trade  unions 
^ve  not  suffered  by  Hatd  eontact  with  their 


foreign  associates.  We  should  be  open  %* 
the  charge  of  vanity  if  we  ventured  to 
hope  that  our  continental  brethren  had 
benefited  by  our  intercourse  with  them." 

In  Antwerp,  Ghent,  and  Brussels,  too, 
the  cabinet-makers  have  recently  been 
holding  meetings,  and  have  decided  to  form 
a  union  on  the  plan  of  the  Alliance  Cabi- 
net-makers' Association  of  England  ;  and 
indeed,  any  one  who  reads  the  ofiicial 
documents  of  the  trade  unions  of  the  Uni- 
ted Kingdom  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the 
close  intercourse  with  the  workmen  of  other 
nations,  with  a  view  that  no  person  taking 
work  in  a  foreign  country  shall  undersell 
the  workmen  of  that  country. 

It  is  seen,  then,  that  a  trade  anion  is 
pre-eminently  fitted  for  the  work  it  has  to 
do,  as  must  necessarily  be  the  case  when 
the  work  to  be  done  has  created  the  organ- 
ization, and  not  that  the  organization  has 
created  the  work  to  be  done.  The  power 
to  take  men  whence  they  are  not  wanted, 
and  to  carry  them — abroad  if  necessary— 
where  there  is  work  to  do  ;  the  care  that  is 
taken  of  the  interests  of  the  men,  as  op- 
posed to  the  aggression  of  the  employer,  as 
shown  by  the  frequent  reports  of  the  branch 
secretaries  on  the  trade  of  their  districts; 
the  ability  to  support  men  "on  strike;" 
the  way  in  which  the  unions  assist  each 
other  and  the  ease  with  which  additional 
contributions  are  succes-sfully  levied;  and 
the  fund  that  is  reserved  for  sickness,  emi- 
gration, accidents,  superannuation,  burials 
etc. — of  which  more  hereafter — are  all  evi- 
dences of  the  willingness  of  the  men  to 
obey  an  organization  in  which  they  have 
confidence,  and  which  they  believe  is  work- 
ing for  their  good. 


^i 


CHAPTER  IV. 


TRADE   UNIONS — THEIR   EFFICACY. 


sSfeey  have  raised  wages — Proofs  and  instances — How  much  have  the  unions  raised  ■wages?— The 
unions  a  record  of  the  state  of  the  labor  market — Wages  would  not  rise  quickly  but  for  unions 
— "An  unsuccessful  strike  often  succeeds" — Local  strikes  afl'ect  distant  areas  and  many  trades 
— The  agricultural  laborers — Where  unionism  is  weak,  wages  are  low— Shorter  hours,  yet  more 
Tvork — Piece  work — Errors  of  unions — Difficulties  of  the  union  secretary — Foolish  strikes  inju- 
rious, may  prevent  a  rise  of  wages— A  fair  day's  wages — Employers  combinations— Boards  of 
arbitration — Trade  anions  prevent  strikes — Spread  of  unionism — The  power  of  trade  unions  ac- 
knowledged by  the  employers — Trade  unions  as  friendly  and  benefit  societies— Women's  trade 
unions — Other  features  of  trade  unions,  some  obsolete. 


Although,  as  has  been  shown  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  the  very  nature  of  a  well- 
organized  trade  union  shows  its  fitness  for 
the  work  it  has  to  do,  yet  it  will  be  satis- 
factory if  it  can  be  shown  that  they  do 
their  work  well.  The  question  then  arises 
— Have  they  been  successful?  Do  they 
carry  out  the  objects  for  which  they  are 
formed  ? 

Let  us  ask,  in  the  first  place,  "Have 
they  succeeded  in  raising  wages  in  the 
past?" 

It  seems  so  natural  that  combination 
should  raise  wages,  that  one  is  amazed 
such  a  position  can  be  questioned.  As 
things  at  present  are,  the  relations  between 
employers  and  employed  imply  a  pecuniary 
bargain  Can  it  be  doubted  that  when 
workmen  combine  they  are  much  more 
likely  to  adjust  the  bargain  on  more  favor- 
able terms  to  themselves  than  if  they  had 
no  power  of  organized  action 'i'  Those  even 
who  are  unwilling  to  admit  the  efficacy  of 
trade  unions  cannot  help  showing  at  times 
— unconsciou-'jly,  perhaps — that  they  have 
an  opposite  conviction  ;  and  some  time 
ago  one  who  is  least  friendly  to  trade  or- 
ganizations pointed  out  that  the  secret  ot 
the  attachment  of  the  Southern  States  of 
America  to  slave  labor  "lay  chiefly  in  the 
obtaining  of  labor  at  will  at  a  rate  which 
cannot  be  controlled  by  any  combination. ' ' 

Now,  in  looking  over  the  history  of  trade 
unions,  no  impartial  oKserver  can  doubt 
for  one  moment  that  the  employers  have 
been  gradually  giving  way.  In  1845,  Mr. 
W.  Thornton  had  already  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  result  of  trade  unions 
had  been  to  raise  wages.  In  the  bakiug 
trade  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and 
other  Scotch  towns,  before  1846,  the  men 
were  little  l)etter  than  vassals.  They  lived 
with  their  employers,  in  cheerless  celibacy  ; 
they  were  locked  in  their  rooms  at  nine 
o'clock  at  nights ;  and,  in  short,  being 
driven  by  oppression  into  union,  they 
raised  wages  20  per  cent.,  improved  their 
condition,  and  are  now  a  sober  and  steady 


class  of  men.  In  1873  the  General  Alli- 
ance of  Operative  House  Painters  asked 
for  higher  wages,  and  the  answer  was  an 
increase  in  the  rate  of  pay  amounting  to 
£8000  a  year.  The  annual  report  for  187.'J 
of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Tailors 
shows  an  increase  of  wages  amounting  to 
£40,000  per  annum,  while  the  sum  spent 
in  strikes  and  lockouts  amounted  to  only 
£549  12s.  9d.  A  great  deal  of  the  increase 
is  directly  traceable  to  strikes  or  threats  of 
strikes  ;  though,  of  course,  part  may  be 
due  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try. Still,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the 
men  would  have  shared  in  that  prosperity 
had  it  not  been  for  the  existence  of  the 
union. 

Hardly  a  single  report  is  issued  by  the 
trade  unions  that  does  not  call  attention 
to  the  rise  in  wages  which  by  combined 
action  has  been  brought  about.  Through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  the 
trade  unions  have,  during  the  past  thirty 
or  forty  years,  forced  wages  up,  and  when 
wages  have  fallen,  the  fall  has  not  been  to 
the  low  point  they  were  at  before  the  ri.se 
began.  It  would  therefore  be  tedious  to 
fill  page  after  page  with  a  mass  of  evi- 
dence to  prove  what  is  universally  acknowl- 
edged. Wages  have  risen.  That  is  the 
great  fact.  The  principal  if  not  the  only 
point  upon  which  di.scussion  ari.ses  is  as  to 
whether  or  not  the  trade  unions  have  as- 
sisted to  bring  about  that  state  of  atlairs. 
One  thing  is  certain,  the  employers  are 
not  authorities  on  the  question.  They  are 
too  crotchety.  One  of  their  great  argu- 
ments again.st  trade  unions  is  that  they 
fail  in  their  object,  that  they  do  not  suc- 
ceed in  raising  wages  ;  while  witli  their 
next  breath  they  excuse  themselves  to  the 
public  for  the  high  price  of  coal,  by  say- 
ing "it  is  the  unions  raise  the  price  of 
labor."  Perhaps  it  would  be  as  well  if 
they  rinnembered  the  exi)erience  of  the 
past,  when  out  of  eighty  strikes  for  advance 
of  wage.s  forty-three  were  successful,  seven 
doubtful,  aud  only  thirty  unsuccessful. 


22 


How  much  of  the  rise  in  wages  is  due  to 
the  direct  action  of  trade  unions,  how 
much  to  their  indirect  action,  and  how 
much  to  general  progress  and  prosperity, 
are  questions  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  answer.  A  table,  however,  by 
Mr.  Giflen,  whom  Mr.  John  Morley  de- 
scribes as  "singularly  cool  and  competent, " 
throws  a  little  light  upon  the  subject.  It 
is  as  follows  : — 

'  'Assuming  the  aggregate  income  of  the 
Ipeople  as  about  1200  millions  now,  and 
that  the  wages  of  workingmen  are  per 
head  twice  what  they  were,  the  aggregates 
in  1843  and  at  the  present  time  would 
compare  as  follows  : — 


■S  0 

0   X 

II 

O   U 

-  9. 

I    &  \    £  i    £  I 
Capitalist  classes  from  capital    190   4O0    210    110 
Working    income  in    Income- 


tax  returns 
Ditto  not  in  Income-tax  returns 


Total . 


90  180  90  100 
235  620  385  160 


515  1200  685  130 


Thus  the  increase  of  what  is  known  as 
■working-class  income  in  the  aggregate 
was  greater  than  that  of  any  other  class, 
being  160  per  cent.,  while  the  return  to 
capital  and  the  return  to  what  are  called 
the  capitalist  classes,  whether  it  is  from 
capital  proper,  or,  as  Mr.  Giflfen  maintains, 
a  return  more  in  the  nature  of  wages,  had 
only  increased  about  100  percent."  Can 
any  one  for  a  moment  doubt  that  the 
"extra"  60  per  cent,  that  fell  to  the  lot  of 
working  men  is  due  entirely  and  solely  to 
action  of  trade  unions  ?  Does  not  all  ex- 
perience show  that  the  capitalist  class  have 
ever  taken  as  much  as  they  could  ?  Had 
it  not  been  for  a  resisting  influence,  and 
the  only  resisting  influence  is  the  trade 
union,  the  figures  would  have  been  re- 
versed. The  capitalists  would  have  gained 
an  increase  of  160  per  cent.,  the  operatives 
of  100.  Perhaps  the  discrepancy  would 
have  been  much  greater.  For  my  own 
part,  I  believe  that  trade  unions  are  to  be 
credited  with  more  than  60  per  cent,  in- 
crease, because  it  would  be  easy  to  show 
that  Mr.  Giflen  has  underrated  the  general 
increase  ;*  and,  as  I  have  already  argued, 
but  for  the  action  of  the  unions  there 
would  have  been  very  little  advance  of 
wages  indeed,  nearly  all  of  the  increase 
falling  to  the  capitalist.     At  any  rate,  60 

*  "If  ■we  had  commenced  about  twenty  to 
twenty-five  years  ago,  we  .should  have  been  able 
to  show^  a  very  great  improvement  since  that 
time ;  while  at  that  date  also,  as  compared  with 
an  earlier  period,  a  greater  improvement  would 
have  been  apparent. — Mr.  GWl'en,  in  the  pam- 
phlet already  quoted. 


per  cent,  of  the  160  per  cent,  increase  must 
be  attributed,  and  attributed  as  a  mini- 
mum, to  the  direct  action  of  the  trade 
unions. 

Although  the  question,  "To  what  extent 
is  a  rise  in  wages  due  to  the  action  of  a 
trade  union?"  may  be  difiicult  to  answer, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  some  portion 
of  any  particular  advance  is  often  due  to 
that  influence.  Where  are  the  employers 
who  ever  came  forward  and  advanced 
wages  unasked  ?  t  They  are  few  and  far 
between,  and  what  chance  of  improving 
his  condition  would  any  laborer  have  who 
struck  singly?  Very  little  chance  indeed. 
Now  labor,  unlike  a  commodity,  will  not 
keep.  Once  gone,  it  is  gone  forever.  A 
day  idly  spent  is  a  day  lost ;  and  as  the 
capitalist  can  wait  for  labor  longer  than 
the  laborer  can  wait  for  wages,  there  is  a 
natural  tendency  to  depress  wages.  Then 
why  do  they  not  fall  ?  Is  it  not  because 
of  the  counteracting  power  of  the  union? 
When  bricklayers  from  Liverpool  went  to 
work  on  the  new  town  hall  at  St.  Helen's, 
they  found  men  in  the  same  trade  as  them- 
selves getting  higher  wages  than  they  were. 
They  instantly  demanded  to  be  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  their  more  fortunate 
brethren.  The  employers  refused  to  ac- 
cede to  the  request,  for  reasons  best  known 
to  themselves.  A  strike  ensued,  and  after 
a  short  delay  the  men  accomplished  their 
object.  Now,  is  there  one  sane  man  within 
the  four  seas  of  Great  Britain  who  will 
deny  that  in  this  case  the  Liverpool  brick- 
layers obtained  their  advance  by  united 
action  ? 

This  instance  shows  .something  more. 
It  shows  how,  with  a  widely  spread  union, 
the  rates  of  wages  in  various  towns  may  be 
known — as  in  large  unions  they  are — and 
the  highest  rate  demanded.  Had  the  St. 
Helen's  bricklayers  belonged  to  the  .same 
union  as  those  from  Liverpool,  the  difler- 
ence  in  the  rate  of  wages  in  two  towns  so 
near  each  other  would  have  been  known 
and  equalized,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
lower  rate  would  have  been  raised.  But 
how  can  men  all  over  the  country  ascertain 
what  their  labor  is  worth  in  A'arioua  parts 
of  the  country  unless  they  act  upon  the 
principle  of  association,  and  agree  upon  an 
organization  that  encourages  an  inter- 
change of  information  between  diflerent 
parts  of  the  country?  When,  too,  the 
highest  rate  of  wages  is  discovered,  what 
would  be  the  good  of  the  discovery  unless 
there  was  a  union  strongenough  to  enforce 
the  demands  it  is  desired  to  make  ?  If  not 
the  only    way,    at    any    rate  the  easiest 


t  In  the  Newcastle  engineering  strike,  the 
employers  admitted  that  the  condition  of  tra.'t 
from  the  beginning  permitted  an  advance  of 
wages;  yet  no  advance  was  proposed,  till  the 
pressure  of  the  trade  unions  was  brought  to 
Dear. 


23 


method  of  ascertaining  the  ''real  value"' 
of  labor  is  hj  putting  pressure  on  the  capi- 
talist. Nearly  all  the  present  •wages  rates 
are  based  on  no  real  principle  of  value. 
Any  of  the  rates  are  very  much  below  the 
real  value  of  the  work  done,*  and  repre- 
sent the  amount  which  the  workman  has 
been  able  to  squeeze  out  of  his  employer, 
not  the  full  amount  to  which  he  is  entitled, 
8uch  amount  being  all  above  interest  on 
capital,  a  charge  for  deterioration  of  plant, 
cost  of  supervision  and  cost  of  conduct  of 
business.  In  bringing  pressure  to  bear 
Bpon  the  capitalist,  the  union  is  only  doing 
what  merchants  and  manufacturers  do  to 
find  out  the  price  of  the  commodities  in 
which  they  deal.  For  two  years  the  at- 
tention of  the  colliery  proprietors  was 
chiefly  engrossed  with  "putting  on  the 
screw''  in  greater  or  less  twists  at  a  time, 
until  they  Ibund  a  limit  to  the  disgorging 
powers  of  the  consumer,  and  that  limit 
was  far  beyond  the  wildest  demands  ever 
made  by  any  class  of  men  who  have  ever 
struck  for  an  advance  of  wages,  f 

But,  say  those  opposed  to  trade  unions, 
wages  would  ultimately  rise  when  profits 
rose,  without  any  combination  on  the  part 
of  the  workmen.  With  a  desire  to  concede 
as  much  as  possible  to  our  opponents,  let 
us  grant  this  by  no  means  self-evident 
proposition.  There  is  still  the  fact  that 
the  influence  of  the  union  obtains  the  ad- 
vance sooner  than  would  otherwise  be  the 
case,  and  that  is  a  gain  to  the  men,  and 
another  proof  that  the  societies  are  able  to 
bring  about  the  results  which  it  is  their 
object  to  effect.  If  there  were  no  combina- 
tion amongst  the  men,  and  if  profits  were 
rising,  the  employee  would  pocket  the  en- 
hanced profits,  until  an  imperious  neces- 
sity obliged  them  to  yield  some  portion  to 
the  starving  dependents  upon  their  gener- 
osity and  benevolence. 

Not,  only,  then,  is  a  union  able  to  bring 
about  a  rise  in  wages  sooner  than  would 
otherwise  be  the  case,  but  it  is  also  able  to 
wrest  from  the  employers  a  larger  share  of 
the  profits  than  they  would  concede  to  a 
request  unsupported  by  the  power  to  en- 
force it. 

"Still  more,"  says  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill, 
"might  poor  laborers  who  have  to  do  with 
rich  employers  remain  long  without  the 
amount  of  wages  which  the  demand  for 
their  labor  would  justify,  unless,  in  ver- 
nacular phrase,  they  stood  out  of  it;  and 
how  can  they  stand  out  for  terms  without 
organized   concert?    What  chance  would 

*  The  waRcs  of  the  agricultural  laborer  is  an 
example  of  this. 

+  In  Manoboster  the  carpenters  are  paid  a 
halfpenny  per  hour  more  than  in  Liverpool. 
The  reason  is  stateil  to  he  that  "in  Manchester 
both  eruployers  and  employed  are  thorouRhly 
organized,  and  an  amicable  relationuhip  exiHtM 
lietween  them  :  in  Liverpool  they  are  compara- 
tively disorganized.'' 


any  laborer  have  who  struck  singly  for  an 
advance  of  wages?  How  could  he  ever 
know  whether  the  state  of  the  market  ad- 
mitted of  a  rise,  except  by  consultation 
with  his  fellows  naturally  leading  to  con- 
certed action?"  The  only  instance  that 
has  come  under  the  notice  of  the  author  of 
employers  being  eager  to  aid  a  trade  union 
was  recently,  when,  for  their  own  advan- 
tage, they  Avished  to  see  the  resuscitation 
of  the  Macclesfield  silk  weavers'  union,  as 
a  protection  to  themselves  from  each  other 
by  equalizing  wages. 

Even  if  a  strike  fail,  it  not  only  shows 
that  the  men  have  capacity,  willingness, 
and  power  to  combine  in  sudi  a  way  that 
masters  will  olten  hesitate  ere  they  resume 
the  encounter  :  but,  paradoxical  as  it  may 
appear,  an  unsucces-sful  strike  often  suc- 
ceeds. Suppose  there  has  been  a  long  and 
terrible  dispute,  like  the  one  in  the  agri- 
cultural districts,  and  that  those  engaged 
in  it  have  been  obliged  to  return  to  work 
without  the  advance  which  was  at  first 
sought.  Can  it  be  doubted  that  in  the 
case  referred  to,  the  praiseworthy  pertinac- 
ity of  the  agricultural  laborers  created 
such  an  impression  that  the  farmers  will 
think  twice  before  locking  them  out  when 
next  an  advance  is  asked,  especially  as  all 
right-feeling  and  right-thiaking  men  ac- 
knowledge that  the  circumstances  of  the 
world  are  inconsistent  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  English  agriculttiral  laborer 
in  the  condition  which  has  hitherto  been 
his?  Or  take  the  case  of  the  London 
builders,  when  10,000  of  them  gave  up 
£325,000  without  at  first  getting  anything 
for  their  money,  but  after  they  had  re- 
turned to  work  "had  their  wages  raised  by 
successive  steps  from  an  average  of  25.«.  to 
one  of  30s.,  and  that  without  being  obliged 
to  resort  to  a  general  strike,  or  to  any 
strike  on  a  large  scale."  All  their  recent 
strikes  have  been  wliat  are  termed  [sec- 
tional, and  in  many  instances  they  have 
not  had  to  strike,  but  have  got  what  they 
wanted  by  simply  making  it  clear  that 
they  were  prepared  to  strike  unless  they 
got  it. ""Chiefly  by  this  means  it  is  that 
they  have  succeeded  in  getting  5s.  a  week, 
or  20  per  cent.,  added  to  their  wages. 
Now,  o.s.  a  week  is  <£13  a  year,  which, 
multiplied  by  10,00(»,  comes  to  Xi:iO,000, 
or  40  per  cent,  on  the  original  outlay^ 
which  now  yielding  such  interest,  must  be 
admitted  to  have  been  really,  in  spite  of 
first  appearances,  a  very  tolerable  invest- 
ment. 

Indeed,  almost  the  whole  of  the  great 
failures  on  the  part  of  the  men,  when 
looked  at  in  the  same  way,  show  that  all 
was  not  lost — nor,  indeed,  so  much  as  was 
supposed.  "The  same  dismal  uniformity, 
the  same  miserable  monotony  of  defeat, " 
as  an  ironmaster  once  called  a  long  series 
of  strikes,   Avould   indeed  be  yloomy  if  it 


24 


could  not  be  shown  that,  as  in  the  great 
Montrose's  campaign,  Argyll  often  gained 
the  victory,  but  failed  to  reap  its  fruits. 
The  great  strike  of  the  Manchester  spin- 
ners in  1859,  when  i;-250, 000  of  wages  were 
lorfeited  apparently  to  no  purpose;  a  simi- 
lar loss  when  in  the  I'oUowing  year  80,000 
>  pinners  at  Ash  ton  and  Staley  bridge 
struck  work  ;  the  dispute  on  the  Tyneand 
the  Wear  in  1832,  when  thousands  of  pit- 
men held  out  with  heroic  endurance  ;  the 
-itrike  of  the  Manchester  builders  in  1833, 
when  £70,000  of  wages  were  sacrificed ; 
the  Prestoa  strikes  in  183fS  and  1854,  in 
the  former  of  which  thirteen  weeks'  idle- 
ness cost  the  men  £57,200 — and  in  the 
latter  there  was  the  terrible  suflering  of 
seventeen  thousand  per  sons  foregoing  £420,- 
000  of  wages  for  thirty  -six  weeks  ;  the  en- 
gineers' strike  in  1853,  which  lasted  fifteen 
weeks,  and  in  which  £43.000  of  wages  were 
lost ;  the  strike  in  the  London  building 
trade  in  1860  ;  that  of  the  ironworkers  in 
Staflordshire,  and  that  in  the  North  in 
1865  ;  t'uat  of  the  London  tailors  in  1867  ; 
:tad  that  of  the  South  Wales  miners  in 
1873,  who  sacrificed  £750,000 ;  to  say 
nothing  of  the  dispiites  in  the  eastern 
counties,  and  the  numerous  disputes  and 
lock-outs  which  have  recently  dotted  the 
island ;  here  snrely  (and  these  are  but 
samples)  is  a  list  of  failures  sufficient  to 
stamp  out  the  life  of  unionism,  because  in 
the  cases  mentioned  the  men  had  to  give  in 
and  return  to  work  on  terms  sometimes  the 
same,  often  worse,  and  seldom  better,  than 
those  against  which  they  struck.  Strikes, 
however,  are  sometimes  of  that  nature  of 
which  it  can  be  said,  "It  is  the  battle  only, 
and  not  the  victory,  that  can  be  dwelt  upon 
with  advantage."  The  men  often  appear 
to  have  failed  disastrously.  But  the  fact 
is,  they  were  not  failures  entirely.  They 
were  defeats  in  which  the  victors  got  all 
the  glory,  the  defeated  all  the  profit.  The 
employers  rush  to  the  fight  ^vith  the  dash 
of  cavalry,  and  force  the  men  to  capitu- 
late ;  but  between  their  victories  they  are 
constantly  giving  way  to  the  men.  The 
workmen  seem  fully  consciousof  this;  and 
in  a  printers'  dispute  in  Liverpool,  a  few 
years  ago,  men  turned  out  with  their  fel- 
lows when  the  result  of  the  former's  doing 
so  was  to  strike  for  lower  wages.  Such  was 
their  faith  in  the  ultimate  advantages  of 
unionism,  and  events  showed  that  they 
had  not  miscalculated.  As  Mr.  Thornton 
puts  it,  "During  nearly  half  a  century 
all  signal  triumphs  have  been  on  one  side, 
all  substantial  success  on  the  other." 

It  is  not,  therefore,  just  to  say  that  a 
strike  having  cost  £700,000  or  £800,000, 
and  having  failed  to  obtain  that  for  which 
it  strove,  is  necessarily  a  failure.  The  ad- 
vance may  come  later  on.  Nor  can  it  be 
eaid  that  a  strike  that  has  cost  £20,000,  and 
raised  wages  say  only  £2,000,  has  failed. 


The  strike  will  certainly  have  been  Itxjal ; 
the  rise  is  almost  certain  to  be  general.  A 
strike,  too,  in  one  portion  of  the  country 
often  enables  men  to  obtain  an  advance  of 
wages  in  another  portion  without  recourse 
to  the  final  appeal.  The  funds  of  the 
union  are  thus  saved,  and  often  a  large 
advance  is  obtained  at  a  very  small  cost,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  tailors  in  1873,  who,  as 
already  mentioned,  obtained  an  advance 
amounting  to  £40,000  per  annum,  at  a  cost 
of  only  £.594  V2s  9d. 

What,  then,  sometimes  appears  an  in- 
effectual strike  often  proves  to  be  one  of 
great  effect.  It  mus*^  be  remembered,  too, 
that  non-unionists  often  reap  to  some  ex- 
tent the  advantages  of  the  unionists.  In- 
deed, in  most  instances  they  enjoy  all  the 
benefits  of  an  advance  brought  about  by 
the  action  of  the  union,  and  it  is  lor  them 
to  settle  with  their  own  consciences  the 
honesty  of  reaping  advantages,  to  obtain 
Avhich  they  have  contributed  nothing. 
When  they  do  not  obtain  the  v,  hole  of  the 
advantages  of  a  rise,  they  are  pretty  sure 
to  obtain  some  advance,  as  when  the 
"standard"  of  wages  has  been  raLsed  it 
drags  after  it  a  general  increase  all  round. 
Itappears  from  this  that  union  workmen  are 
perfectly  justified  in  refusing  to  work  with 
non-union  men,  though  the  practice  of 
doing  so  is  far  from  general.  The  latter 
have  done  nothing  to  raise  or  sustain 
wages,  and  ought  not  to  expect  to  enjoy 
the  results  of  the  sacrifices,  the  moral 
courage,  and  the  contributions  of  the 
unionists.  Whenever  union  workmen  do 
work  with  non-union  men  it  shows  that 
unselfishness  and  generosity — that  sinking 
of  self  for  others — which  are  characteristic 
of  almost  all  unions.  It  is  worth  men- 
tioning, too,  that  other  trades  besides  the 
one  "on  strike"  are  often  benefited  by  an 
advance  in  the  wages  of  those  ' "  on  strike. ' ' 
Thtts,  if  the  "puddlers"  receive  an  ad- 
vance of  wages,  the  hammermen,  the  rol- 
lers, and  the  laborers  are  pretty  certain  to 
be  similarly  treated.  It  is  thus  seen  that 
the  material  advantages  of  a  strike  cannot 
be  reckoned  by  taking  the  cost  of  the  strike 
and  the  gain  in  wages,  and  substracting 
one  from  the  other. 

It  maybe  said — and  veryjtistly — that, 
if  the  general  tendency  of  trade  unionism 
be  to  raise  wages,  then,  where  there  are 
no  itnious,  wages  should  be  lower  than 
ordinary.  This  is  exactly  the  case.  Un- 
fortunately, the  non-unionists  keep  no 
statistics,  and  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain 
the  exact  wages  they  are  paid.  It  is,  how- 
ever, generally  known  that  the  worst  paid 
trades  in  the  kingdom  are  those  which 
have  no  unions.  The  evidence  of  the  men 
themselves  is  valuable  on  this  point,  be- 
cause, unless  they  felt  they  received  an  ad- 
vantage, they  would  leave  the  union.  What 
the  men  want  is  high  wages  for  little  work, 


25 


as  much  wa<jes  as  they  can  wet  for  aa  little 
T;ork  as  tbey  can  do,  and  if  their  unions 
could  not  give  those  lienedts  to  them,  they 
would  cease  to  support  them.  "I  have 
been  a  worker."  sajs  one  operative,  "some- 
thing like  forty-iour  years.  For  twenty 
years  of  that  period  I  have  been  employed 
in  erecting  machinery  in  diflereut  parts  of 
the  country,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying,  wherever  we  find  union  principles 
ignored  a  low  rate  of  wages  prevails,  and 
the  reverse  where  organization  is  perfect. 
1"he  most  approved  remedy  for  low  wages 
is  combination." 

An  advance  of  wages,  however,  is  not  the 
only  ol)ject  of  a  trade  union,  nor  the  sole 
purpose  of  a  strike.  Sometimes  the  men 
demand  shorter  hours.  To  work  a  less 
number  of  hours  for  the  same  amount  of 
wages  is  naturally  attractive  to  the  work- 
man. He  not  only  sees  that  such  an  ar- 
langement  gives  him  more  time  for  recrea- 
1  ion  and  lor  the  enjoyment  of  home  com- 
Jbrts — for  billiards,  books  or  beer — without 
calling  on  his  wife  to  "pinch,  cut,  and  con- 
trive," but  that  the  reduction  of  houi-s 
causes  more  of  his  fellow-workmen  to  be 
employed.  The  demand  for  a  commodity 
being  the  same,  and  the  number  of  work- 
ing hours  diminished,  more  men  must  be 
employed  to  produce  the  same  amount  of 
work  in  less  time.  Men  who  were  forced 
to  be  idle  are  thus  provided  with  employ- 
ment. These  additional  workmen  become 
spenders  as  well  as  producers,  and  the  ad- 
vantages of  that  he  knows  to  consist  in  a 
^'eneral  improvement  all  round.  In  than 
benefiting  himself,  therefore,  he  is  benefit- 
i  iighis  class.  No  action  of  the  trade  unionists 
has  been  crowned  with  such  signal  success  as 
That  taken  to  bring  about  the  reduction  of 
hours.  The  State  itself  watched  the  strain- 
ing efforts  that  were  being  made,  both  re- 

<  ently  and  in  years  gone  by  ;  and  when 
there  was  a  sign  of  tottering  or  failure, 
came  to  ita  assistance.  "The  demand  is 
against  the  laws  of  political  economy," 

<  ry  the  employers.  "We  ask  a  blessing, " 
I  epiy  the  men,  "  l>ut  are  not  strong  enough 
to  force  it."  So  Parliament  steps  in  and 
gives  a  Factory  Act  ;  just  as  when  the 
men  (not  the  employers)  complained  that 
their  union  was  not  strong  enough  to  better 
the  condition  of  miners  when  underground, 
the  Hou.se  of  Commons  pa.s8ed  a  "Mines 
iiegulation  Act."  The  support  which  the 
demands  of  the  unions  are  receiving  from 
Parliament  is  a  very  significant  phenome- 
non in  the  Hi.storyof  England. 

What  is  very  surprising  is  that  the  em- 
rtloyers  believe  that  they  can  get  more  work 
out  of  a  man  when  they  work  him  to  ileath. 
They  forget  that  it  is  not  the  miles  one 
travels,  but  the  pace  that  kills.  They 
ignore  the  doctrine  of  Adam  Smith,  that 
"the  man  who  works  so  moderately  a.s  to 
be  able  to  work  constantly,  not  only  pre- 


.servea  his  health  the  longest,  but  in  the 
course  of  a  year  executes  the  greatest  quan- 
tity of  work."  Capitalists  do  not  pursue 
snch  a  policy  in  regard  to  their  horses. 
The  fact  is,  they  are  not  thinking  of  their 
men.  They  are  brooding  over  their  valu- 
able machinery  standing  idle,  and  calcu- 
lating what  it  would  bring  them  if  it  went 
OQ  working  a  few  hours  longer.  The  manu- 
facturer sitting  in  his  counting-house, 
within  the  sound  of  the  murmur  of  hia 
machinery  and  the  chinking  of  his  engine, 
hums  to  himself  at  each  clack  of  the  fly- 
wheel, "So  much  forme,  so  much  forme." 
And  when  he  beholds  his  "hands"  leaving 
for  home  on  a  summer  evening  while  it  is 
yet  light,  and  no  longer  heais  the  heavy 
ioeat  of  the  beam  or  the  rattle  of  the  shut- 
tle,, he  looks  upon  the  stillness  as  the 
symbol  of  his  loss.  Such  men  must  be 
very  miserable  on  Sundays. 

It  is  now,  however,  a  well  ascertained 
fact  that,  within  certain  limits,  more  work 
is  done  as  a  rule  where  there  is  a  prospect 
of  an  early  cessation  from  work  than  when 
men  know  that  they  are  doomed  to  several 
hours  of  continuous  employment.  A  few 
years  ago  the  average  day's  work  in  Eng- 
land was  ten  hours.  On  the  Continent  it 
was  twelve,  in  Russia  sixteen  or  seventeen  ; 
and  yet  it  is  calculated  that  two  English 
mowers  would  do  in  a  day  the  work  of  six; 
Russian  ones.  Russian  factory  operatives 
worked  seventy-five  hours  in  the  week, 
when  those  in  England  worked  only  sixty, 
yet  the  Avork  of  the  former  was  only  one- 
fifth  of  that  of  the  latter.  V.'ben  the 
average  working  time  of  a  miner  in  South 
Wales  was  twelve  hours  a  day,  those  in  the 
North  of  England  worked  only  seven,  yet 
the  cost  of  getting  coals  in  Aberdare  was 
2')  per  cent,  more  than  in  Northumber- 
land. As  has  been  well  said,  "The  work- 
man who  cannot  tire  himself  in  eight  hours 
is  not  worth  his  salt." 

In  showing  the  efficacy  of  trade  unions, 
and  in  maintaining  the  justice  of  their  de- 
mauds,  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the 
author  imagines  they  never  err.  No  one 
will  pretend  to  deny  that  the  unions  have 
done  what  many  people  do  not  approve, 
and  which  they  themselves  on  calmer  re- 
flection, do  not  approve.  I5ut  this,  a.s  Mr. 
Bright  .says,  only  shows  they  are  not  im- 
maculate, and  that  their  wisdom,  like  that 
of  other  classes,  is  not  perfect.  One  is  tired 
of  hearing  that  the  result  of  trade  unions 
was  Broadhead,  Crookes,  and  liallam  ;  that 
its  means  were  rufliani^m  and  munhr  ;  its 
ends  never  ini|uired  into.  These  men  were 
not  the  result  of  unionism,  but  of  the  at- 
tempt to   crush  unionism.*     The  laws  of 

*  BrOB(Jliea<l  liiiiivelf  Hiiiil  to  (lie  KuvhI  Coiu- 
Illi•'^i<.Iler.■l :  "If  the  law  woiill  only  (five  tliu 
unions  Home  jiowjt  to  recover  cyntrllmtlona, 
williout  ImvinK  roooiirse  to  .«ucli  iiioH.survs,  there 
would  lio  no  luoic  liL'urU  of  llii-ui." 


26 


the  country  made  all  unionists  conspira- 
tors. Even  the  simplest  actions,  which 
are  now  allowable,  were  illegal,  and 
when  what  is  morally  right  is  decided  by 
tribunals  to  be  legally  wrong,  the  culprit 
has  more  respect  lor  himself  than  he  has 
for  the  law.  Unionism,  however,  needs  no 
defence  here  on  that  head.  The  press  may 
croak  about  the  three  miscreants  above 
named  until  it  is  hoarse  ;  it  can  have  little 
*!ftiect  upon  an  institution  which  has  pro- 
duced such  men  as  Thomas  Burt,  Henry 
Broadhurst,  William  Allan,  John  Burnett, 
Joseph  Arch,  and  John  Kane. 

At  the  same  time  the  unions,  and  espe- 
i^lally  the  union  secretaries,  have  a  very 
difficult  task  to  perform.  The  average 
British  workman  is  not  yet  sufficiently 
advanced  in  intelligence  to  apprehend  that 
wages  may  vary  in  two  ways.  His  union, 
it  is  imagined,  has  power  to  force  wages 
up  ;  he  is  loath  to  admit  that  it  cannot 
sometimes  resist  their  falling.  The  avithor 
once  saw  an  ironworker  who  had  been  dis- 
missed from  his  work  because  he  had  been 
drinking  for  three  days  ;  and  the  stupid 
fellow  was  very  Avroth  indeed  because  the 
union  secretary  would  not  order  a  strike 
on  account  of  the  man's  dismissal.  ' '  I  pay 
my  money  to  t'  union,"  said  he,  "  for  pro- 
tection, and  this  is  how  you  .serve  me." 
The  executive  of  a  union,  then,  has  to  be 
careful,  not  only  that  it  does  not  strike  un- 
less it  has  r'ght  on  its  side,  but  it  has  to 
educate  the  men  to  the  same  opinion. 
The  work  n>  en  have  to  be  taught  that 
they  must  not  attempt  to  obtain  from 
capital  impossible  concessions.  They  must 
only  strike  when  ce.ssation  of  produc- 
tion means  loss  of  prolit  to  the  masters.  For 
instance,  it  would  not  only  be  manifestly 
unjust  but  absurd  to  strike  for  higher 
wages  in  the  face  of  a  falling  market.  How 
difficult  it  is  to  impress  this  upon  the  men, 
the  union  secretary  knows  full  well.  Some- 
times the  men  cannot  see  the  force  of  the 
forbearance  which  is  urged  upon  them,  and 
in  their  ignorance  are  very  self-willed. 

It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  greater  care 
than  formerly  is  taken  to  prevent  those 
strikes  which,  being  foolish,  were  always 
disastrous.  How  easily  this  may  be  done 
is  evident  from  the  practice  in  some  trades 
of  keeping  complete  registers  in  which  the 
fluctuations  of  the  market  are  indicated, 
and  the  union  secretaries  are  as  well 
acquainted  with  the  price  of  cotton  and 
iron  as  the  masters.  Even  this,  however, 
is  not  always  sufficient,  and  the  employers 
show,  with  arguments  seemingly  plausible, 
that  their  profits  are  very  small.  The  men, 
however,  though  unable  to  point  out  the 
fallacy  in  the  reasoning  opposed  to  them, 
nevertheless  are  aware  of  its  existence. 
' '  We  have  been  working  at  a  loss  for 
years,"  said  a  large  cotton  manufacturer 
to  the  union  secretary.     "Yes,"  was  the 


shrewd  reply,  "  you  have  been  losing  yovw 
little  mills  and  building  bigger  one.s."  The 
cotton-spinners  of  Bolton,  in  September^ 
1874,  sent  a  similar  reply  to  the  notice  in 
a  reduction  of  wages  given  by  the  masters. 
"The  operatives,"  said  the  reply,  "can- 
not judge  of  trade  from  your  standpoint. 
They  draw  conclusions  from  circumstantial 
evidence,  and  contend  that  the  princely 
fortunes  that  seem  to  be  ama-ssed  around 
us  cannot  have  arisen  from  an  unremunera- 
tive  business  ;  therefore  you  must  pardon 
them  if  itbe  difficult  to  make  them  believe 
that  a  reduction  in  wages  is  called  for. ' ' 

It  is  certainly  a  fair  question  for  discus- 
sion whether  or  not  the  rate  of  wages  at 
the  present  day  is  as  high  as  itought  to  be, 
even  in  the  best  paid  trades.  Capital  is 
increasing  far  faster  than  population. 
When  the  latter  had  doubled  it.self  the 
former  had  quadrupled  itself.  It  .seems, 
therefore,  merely  obedience  to  a  natural 
law  that  wages  should  rise;  and  if  trade 
unions  have  failed  in  their  efibrts  at  all, 
it  is  in  the  fact  that  while  they  have  raised 
wages,  they  have  not  raised  them  enough. 

War  is  essentially  .euch  an  uncongenial 
state  of  aflTairs  that  no  surprise  can  be  felt 
that  the  combinations  of  employers  and  of 
men  endeavor  to  discover  some  means  oi 
amicably  settling  disputes.  It  would  na- 
turally suggest  itself  to  minds  on  both 
sides  that  a  meeting  of  ambassadors  or  le- 
legates  from  the  men  should  meet  siuKlar 
officers  from  the  employers  to  talk  o^er  mat- 
ters. That  this  should  come  abx-^iv  «ft» 
prophesied  so  long  ago  as  1846  by  Mr.  John 
Bright,  who,  in  opposing  the  Factory  Bill, 
said  that  "the  working  classes  would 
every  day  become  more  and  more  powerful 
and  intelligent — not  by  violent  combina- 
tion or  collisions  with  their  employers,  but 
by  a  rational  union  amongst  themselves, 
by  reasoning  with  their  employers,  and  l)y 
the  co-operation  of  all  classes."  It  is  worth 
noting  that  the  initiatory  step  in  this  direc- 
tion was  taken  by  the  trades  unions.  The 
late  general  secretary  of  the  Amalgamated 
Society  of  Engineers,  over  and  over  again, 
during  many  years,  advocated  what  is 
known  now  as  "  arbitration,"  and  he  was 
ably  backed  in  his  efforts  by  IMr.  11.  Apple- 
garth,  former  secretary  of  the  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Carpenters,  and  other 
well-known  trade  unionists.  In  ISfiO  a 
board  of  arbitration  was  formed,  at  ihr, 
request  of  the  wen,  amongst  the  Nottingham 
lace-workers,  and  since  then  the  trades  of 
Staffordshire,  jSIiddlcsborough,  Cleveland, 
Bradford,  Sheffield,  and  other  places  have 
followed  that  example. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  point 
out  upon  what  basis  arbitration  should  be 
fermed.  Mr.  Kupert  Kettle,  in  his  pam- 
phlet, has  provided  us  with  the  necessary 
forms  of  proceeding.  It  is  sufficient  to 
state  that  such  a  mode  of  settling  a  dis- 


21 


pute  should  always  to  he  encouraged.  It 
is  very  much  cheaper  to  both  sides  than  a 
strike  or  lock-out ;  and  it  does  not  leave 
behind  it  that  "  immortal  hate  and  study 
of  revenge"  which  are  the  result — in  the 
present  state  ot  human  nature — of  a  long 
and  rancorous  struggle.  The  argument 
that  arbitration  is  useless  because  it  is 
not  binding  in  law,  is  neither  true  in  fact 
nor  just  in  reason.  The  contract  which 
Mr.  Kettle  directs  to  be  signed  when  he 
acts  as  arbitrator,  is  as  binding  as  any  other 
contract,  but  if  it  were  not,  honor  has 
such  force  in  our  public  code  of  morality 
that  both  masters  and  men  would  feel 
bound  to  obey  a  compact  solemnly  and 
freely  entered  into.  It  is  iirged  by  some 
that  arbitrations  are  unjust  in  principle, 
because  they  are  founded  upon  a  fallacy, 
VIZ.,  that  they  can  fix  the  future  market 
price  of  labor,  irrespective  of  the  laws  of 
supply  and  demand.  This,  however, 
is  not  so.  To  fix  the  price  of  labor 
for  a  certain  time — for  so  many  weeks 
or  so  many  days — in  advance  is  not  de- 
ciding upon  a  future  price.  It  is  merely 
eelling  a  larger  quantity  of  labor  at  to- 
day's price,  or,  as  Mr.  Kettle  puts  it,  of 
"to-day's  labor."  It  is  generally  better 
in  all  commodities — better  for  both  buyer 
and  seller — to  deal  wholesale.  The  masters 
will  buy  no  more  of  labor  at  a  higher  price 
than  they  can  help  ;  the  men  will  sell  as 
little  at  a  low  price  as  they  possibly  can. 
To  say  that  such  a  contract  as  the  one  here 
supposed  decides  the  future  price  of  labor 
is  no  more  true  than  that  a  man  agreeing 
to  supply  another  man  with  apples  at  two- 
pence a  pound  for  six  months  is  deciding 
upon  a  future  price  for  apples.  The  price 
is  to-day's  price,  the  ether  article  in  the 
agreement  relates  merely  to  the  times  of 
delivery.  Perhaps  in  arbitrations  may  be 
seen  what  will  one  day  become  an  impar- 
tial tribunal  for  determining  what  is  a 
"fair  day's  wages  for  a  f  ir  day's  work," 
and  it  is  one  of  the  best,  as  it  is  one  of  the 
most  gratifying  proofs  of  the  efiicacy  of 
trade  unions,  that  they  have  been  .success- 
ful in  the  formation  of  boards  of  arbitra- 
tion, and  in  teaching  their  men  to  submit 
to  the  decisions  of  the  arbitrators. 

In  order,  however,  that  trade  unions 
may  lay  claim  to  fitness  lor  carrying  out 
their  objects,  they  must  show  something 
more  than  that  they  are  able  to  conduct  a 
strike  to  a  successful  issue,  to  palliate  the 
evils  of  an  unsuccessful  strike,  and  to  suc- 
ceed in  occasionally  forming  a  board  of 
arbitration.  They  must  show  that  in  their 
very  nature  they  have  the  desire  and  the 
power  to  prevent  strikes.  It  is  gratifying 
to  be  able  to  state  that  in  this  respect, 
also,  the  trade  \inions  are  eminently  suc- 
cessful. Indeed  economy,  if  nothing  else, 
■would  dictate  such  a  policy.  The  execu- 
toriea  of  trade  unions  have  been  taught  l)y 


experience  that,  even  when  an  object  ih 
worth  striving  for,  a  strike  is  often  thu 
worst,  and  always  the  most  expensive  waj 
of  obtaining  it.  Strikes,  as  a  rule,  are  a 
dernier  rexsori,  and  are  more  frequently  dis- 
countenanced by  the  general  secretary 
than  approved  of  by  him.  Indeed,  it  is  the 
boast  of  most  trade  union  secretaries  that 
they  have  prevented  more  strikes  than  they 
have  originated.  This  is  all  the  more 
creditable,  because  some  branch  or  other  is 
always  urging  a  strike.  "At  least  twenty 
times  in  as  many  months,"  wrote  Mr. 
Allan,  "we  have  recommended  that  a 
strike  should  not  take  place."  "About 
one-third,"  answered  Mr.  Applegarth, 
when  questioned  on  the  subject  hy  the 
Royal  Commissioners,  "of  the  applications 
made  to  us  to  strike  during  the  last  few 
years  have  been  refused  ;  and  Jlr.  Mac- 
donald,  secretary  of  the  House  Painters' 
Alliance,  said — "Our  parent  society  never 
originated  a  strike,  but  it  has  stojiped 
many." 

The  accounts  of  the  various  trade  unions, 
also,  shoAvs  how  reluctant  the  executories 
are  to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  a  strike. 
This  was  recently  pointed  out  by  Mr. 
George  Howell,  in  his  clever  and  concise 
article  in  the  Contemportui/  Beriar  of  SeTp- 
tember,  1883,  and  by  Mr.  Frederic  Harri- 
son in  his  address  at  the  Trade  Union 
Congress  at  Nottingham  in  the  following 
month,  published  in  the  same  magazine 
in  November  last.  Attention  has  been 
already  called  to  this  subject,  but  the 
passage  will  bear  repetition.  ' '  Last  year, 
says  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  "  the  Amalga- 
mated Engineers,  with  au  income  of 
£124,000  and  a  cash  balance  of  XlGB.OOO, 
expended  in  disputes  altogether,  including 
the  support  they  gave  to  other  trades,  £895 
only.  That  Avas  far  less  than  one  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  of  their  income.  The  iron- 
founders  spent,  out  of  an  income  of  £42,- 
000,  £214  only  ;  and  the  Amalgamated 
Carpenters,  who  had  a  number  of  disputes 
and  been  engaged  in  strikes,  spent  £2,000 
out  of  £50,000,  which  was  only  four  per 
cent.  The  tailors,  with  £18,(H)0,  spent 
£,")()5  only;  and  the  stonemasons  with  11,- 
000  mem>)ers  in  union,  sjjeut  nothing  in 
strikes.  During  six  years  of  unexanii)led 
bad  trade,  and  reduction  of  wages,  and 
industrial  disturbance,  there  were  a  great 
many  strikes,  and  during  that  period  .seven 
great  trade  societies  expended  in  the  .settle- 
ment of  disputes  £162,000  only  out  of  a 
capital  of  nearly  £2,000,000.  La.st  year 
(1882)  these  societies,  with  au  aggregate 
income  of  £330,0(J0  and  a  ca-sli  In.lance  of 
£300,000,  expended  altogether  in  mattersof 
dispute  about  £r>,00(),  which  was  not  two 
per  cent,  on  the  whole  of  their  income,  and 
not  one  per  cent,  on  their  total  available 
resources  for  the  year."  When  it  is  re- 
membered   tliat    fi!)    per    cent,    of    theie 


y8 


societies'  expenditures  were  for  benevolent 
and  provident  purposes  and  one  per  cent. 

•  only  for  strikes,  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  the 
chief  object  of  a  trade  union  is  to  foster 
trade  disputes. 

The  power  on  part  of  trade  unions  to 
prevent  .strikes  increases  with  the  strength 
of  the  unions.     One  of  the  most  pleasing 

•  features  in  unionism  is  that  the  most 
powerful  associations  show  least  inclina- 
tion to  strike.  Where  the  power  to  do 
evil  is  greatest,  the  will  to  u.se  that  power 
is  least.  Strength  has  been  accompanied 
by  intelligence  and  discretion.  TheGlas- 
makers'  Society  is  composed  of  every  man 
in  the  trade,  and  has,  therefore,  so  to  speak, 
an  entire  monopoly  ;  and  yet,  strange  and 
gratifying  to  relate,  they  seldom  have  any 
dispute.  The  masters  frequently  consult 
with  the  representatives  of  the  tinion,  and 
if  the  former  wish  to  engage  additional 
hands  they  communicate  with  the  latter, 
find  men  are  instantly  found.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  Jacts  to  which  attention  is 
here  directed  will  be  sufficient  to  remove 
the  hatred  to  unionism  of  those  who 
believe  that  trade  unions  are  the  cause  of 
strikes.  A  union  does,  indeed,  render  a 
strike  possible,  but  it  cannot  catise  one. 
As  has  been  aptly  said,  to  maintain  that 
unions  are  the  cause  of  strikes,  is  the  same 
as  saying  that  gunpowder  is  the  cause  of 
war. 

There  were  strikes  before  there  were 
trade  unions,  and  it  is  a  fact  worth  re- 
membering that  the  most  violent  strikes 
have  been  where  unions  did  not  exist. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  strongest  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  efficacy  of  trade 
itnionism  is  the  rapidity  with  which  its 
principles  are  spreading  amongst  the 
workingmen.  If  unionism  did  not  benefit 
the  workingman — did  not,  that  is,  carry 
out  its  object — the  workingman  would 
Uave  it ;  and  were  not  the  advantages  he 
receives  of  a  very  definite  and  material 
nature,  he  would  not  submit  to  the  heavy 
tax  upon  his  wages  which  his  society  de- 
mands— a  tax  considerably  more  than  half 
of  the  amount  demanded  from  him  by 
the  Imperial  Exchequer.  The  men,  how- 
ever, do  not  leave  the  union.  In  1859  it 
was  estimated  that  the  number  of  mem- 
bers of  trade  unions  was  600,000  ;  in  1870 
it  had,  it  was  calculated,  increased  to  800,- 
000.  In  1874  I  estimated  the  number  at 
1,500,000;  and  two  years  later  Mr.  George 
Howell  fixed  the  membership  of  the  difter- 
ent  societies  at  1  600,000.  In  1870  Mr. 
Thornton  estimated  that  only  about  10 
per  cent,  of  the  v.orkmen  were  members 
of  unions,  but  he  added  that  "at  the  pre- 
.sent  rate  of  proselytism  it  will  take  but  a 
few  years  more  lor  all  eligible  workmen  in 
this  country  to  become  converts  to  union- 
ism, and  enrolled  members  of  trade  socie- 
ties." Since  Mr.  Thornton  wrote,  the  "rate 


of  proselytism"  has  wonderlully  increased. 
The  five  largest  societies  havedoubiea  cbe 
number  of  their  members  in  sixteen  years. 
Rapid  as  has  been  the  the  progress  of  trade 
unionism,  there  is,  therefore,  ample 
room  tor  further  development.  Indeed, 
trade  unions  are  as  yet  in  their  infancy. 
They  recognize  this,  and  many  of  them 
are  exercising  themselves  to  bring  non- 
unionists  to  see  the  wisdom  of  entering 
their  portals.  It  is  to  be  hoped  their 
efforts  will  be  crowned  with  success,  and 
that  in  a  very  few  years  every  working 
man  will  belong  to  a  union  of  his  trade. 

Yeais  ago  trade  unions  were  considered 
too  insignificant  for  notice.  The  Press  en- 
tirely ignored  them,  and  publishers  recused 
to  print  literature  concerning  them.  When 
their  existence  was  at  last  recognized, 
they  were  treated  with  an  uncompromising 
hostility — they  were  regarded  as  enemies 
to  social  order  and  progress.  To  be  a  trade 
unionist  was  to  be  a  "  dangerous  character, ' ' 
and  that  trade  unions  ought  to  be  suppressed 
was  the  general  opinion  of  what  is  called 
the  respectable  portion  of  the  community. 
All  this  is  now  changed  ;  trade  unions  are 
not  only  acknowledged  to  be  jiLstifiable, 
but  necessary.  Magazine  editors  throw 
open  their  pages  to  the  unions'  champions, 
and  even  the  trade  union  officers  themselves 
contribute  articles  to  the  leading  publica- 
tions of  the  day.  The  representatives  of 
unions  hold  converse  with  Cabinet  minis- 
ters, and  the  assistance  of  the  societies  is 
eagerly  sought  by  candidates  for  parlia- 
mentary honors.  The  proceedings  of  the 
trade  congresses  are  telegraphed  from  one 
end  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other.  Unions 
are  now  acknowledged  as  a  power  for 
"good,"  and,  to  crown  all,  they  have  suc- 
ceeded in  placing  three  of  their  secretaries 
in  the  House  of  Commons  itself,  and  there 
is  every  likelihood,  ere  long,  of  many  more 
being  returned  as  members  of  that  as- 
sembly. 

It  was  discovered  that  what  unionists 
wanted  was  not  to  rob  capital,  but  obtain 
for  labor  its  rights.  It  was  hoped  that  the 
employers  would  see  the  question  in  this 
light ;  and  one  of  the  most  distressing 
features  in  the  discussion  of  this  question 
is  the  violent  hostility,  the  determination 
to  fight,  the  desire  for  war,  displayed  in 
the  programme  of  "the National  Federation 
of  Associated  Employers  of  Labor. ' '  That 
document,  however,  testifies  to  the  power 
and  efficacy  of  trade  unions,  which  is  the 
point  at  present  under  consideration. 
Amidst  a  good  deal  of  misrepresentation 
the  employers  acknowledge  that  the  un- 
ionists have  an  "  elaborate  organization." 
' '  Few  are  aware, ' '  they  say,  " "  of  the  ex- 
tent, compactness  of  organization,  large 
resources,  and  great  influence  of  trade 
unions.  They  have  an  annual  congress  at 
which  an  increasing  number  of  unions  are 


29 


represented  each  year.  '  '"They  have  the 
control  of  enormous  funds,  -which  they  ex- 
pend freely  in  furtherance  of  their  objects, 
and  the  proportion  of  their  earnings  which 
the  operatives  devote  to  the  service  of  their 
leaders  is  startling.''  We  should  think  so, 
to  the  mind  of  a  selfish  ma.ster.  The  associa- 
tions "are  federated  together,  acting  in 
common  accord  under  able  leaders. "  ' "  They 
have  a  well-paid  and  ample  .stafl' of  leaders, 
most  of  them  experienced  in  the  conduct 
of  strikes,  many  of  them  skilful  as  organ- 
izers, all  forming  a  class  apart,  a  profession, 
with  interests  distinct  Irom,  though  not 
necessarily  antagonistic  tc,  those  of  the 
workpeople  they  lead."'  "They  have, 
through  their  command  of  money,  the  im- 
posing aspect  of  their  organization,  and 
partly,  also,  from  the  mistaken  humani- 
tarian aspirations  of  a  certain  number  of 
literary  men  of  good  standing  [.s/c  'mis- 
taken' men,  i.  e.,  such  as  the  late  J.  K. 
Mill,  Prof.  Beesley,  Frederic  Harrison, 
Henry  Crompton,  W.  T.  Thornton,  and 
others],  a  large  array  of  literary  talent, 
which  is  prompt  in  their  service  on  all  oc- 
casions of  controversy.  They  have  their 
own  Press  as  a  field  for  those  exertions. 
Their  writers  have  free  access  to  some  of 
the  leading  London  journals.  They  or- 
ganize frequent  meetings  at  which  paid 
speakers  inoculate  the  working  classes  with 
their  ideas,  and  l^rge  them  to  dictate  terms 
to  candidates  for  Parliament  ....  They 
have  a  standing  Parliamentary  Committee, 
and  a  programme,  and  active  members  of 
Parliament  are  energetic  in  their  service. 
They  have  the  attentive  ear  of  the  minister 
of  the  day,  and  their  communications  are 
received  with  instant  and  respectful  atten- 
tion. They  have  a  large  representation 
of  their  own  body  in  London  whenever 
Parliament  is  likely  to  be  engaged  in  the 
discussion  of  the  proposals  they  have  caused 
to  be  brought  before  it.  Thus,  untram- 
melled by  pecuniary  considerations,  and 
specially  set  apart  for  this  peculiar  work, 
without  other  clashinii  occupations,  they 
resemble  the  staff  of  a  well-organized,  well- 
provisioned  army,  for  which  everything 
that  foresight  and  preoccupation  in  a  given 
purpose  could  provide  is  at  command .  .  . 
These  results  are  the  deserved  reward  of 
the  superiority  of  the  trade  unionists  over 
the  employers  in  those  high  qualities  of 
foresight,  generalship,  and  present  self- 
sacrifice,  for  the  sake  of  future  advantage 
[what  an  admission  !],  which  form  neces- 
sary elements  in  the  success  of  every  organ- 
ized society."  Truly,  if  there  Avere  any 
doubts  as  to  the  fitness  of  trade  unions  t« 
attain  their  objects,  the  National  Federa- 
tion of  Associated  Employers  of  Labor  has 
removed  that  doubt.  Have  the  trade  unions 
eucceeded?  Ask  the  federated  employers. 
There  can  be  no  better  proof,  not  only  of 
the    power,   but    of   the  justice  of  trade 


unionism,  than  the  document  from  whicL 
the  above  quotations  are  taken. 

Although,  then,  trade  unions  have  proved 
themselves  thoroughly  fit  and  able  to  carry 
out  the  main  objects  Jor  which  ihey  were 
formed,  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  in 
regard  to  one  portion  of  their  programme, 
they  have  not  .chown  the  ^ame  tact  and 
ability.  There  is  the  authority  of  the  chief 
actuaries  in  the  country  for  saying  that  the 
insurance  funds — as  they  may  be  called — 
of  some  of  the  trade  unions  are  based  upon 
false  data.  The  amounts  expended  undei 
this  head  are  for  sickness,  superannuation, 
accidents,  funerals,  etc.,  and  the  sum  total 
thus  expended  is  very  large,  in  some  in- 
stances much  greater  than  is  spent  in  con- 
ducting a  strike  or  oppcsing  a  lock-out.*" 

As  has  been  already  pointed  out,  such 
benevolent  notions  had  vtiy  little  to  do 
with  the  formation  of  a  union.  Thfy  were 
mere  subterluges  lacktd  to  the  charter  of 
a  union  because  it  was  illegal  for  them  to 
exist  without  them.  When  they  were  ' '  re- 
gistered," however,  they  had  a  sort  of 
qua.si-legal  existence,  and  could,  at  any 
rate,  meet  legally.  It  is  probable  that  the 
care  and  attention  of  the  original  members 
would  be  devoted  mere  to  the  immediate 
advantage  of  increased  wages  than  in  cal- 
culating premiums  for  a  sick  and  burial 
fund.  Probably,  alfo,  the  actuarial  abili- 
ties of  the  first  promoters  of  unions  were 
not  very  great.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  benevolent  funds  and 
kindred  funds  attached  to  trade  unions 
both  attract  members  and  retain  them.  In 
this  respect  they  are  a  source  of  strength, 
because  each  man  is  bound  to  obedience 
under  the  penalty  of  losing  all  the  money 
he  has  subscribed  lor  his  support  in  sick  ness 
and  old  age. 

That  unions  force  masters  to  pay  bad 
workmen  the  same  wages  as  good  workmen' 
is  not  true,  and  the  very  idea  would  be 
scouted  by  all  .sensible  unionists.  The  no- 
tion that  such  is  the  case  is,  however,  very 
general.  A  uniform  rate  of  pay  exists  in 
the  army,  navy.  Government  oflices,  and 
other  institutions,  in  which  aristocrats  have 
been  able  to  appropriate  the  "maximum  " 
of  pay,  leaving  a  meagre  residuum  to  their 
less  fortunate  brethren  ;  butthetrade  unio- 
nists have  not  yet  learned  to  practise  such 
injustice.  True,  the  unions  sometimes 
agree  upon  a  minimum  rate  of  wages,  but 
this  is(juite  another  thing.  If  a  man  be  not 
worth  that  minimum  no  employer  need 
employ  him,  while  if  he  be  a  man  of  supe- 
rior skill,  or  extraordinary  working  ability, 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  Avages  an 
employer  may  feel  inclined  to  give  him. 
Of  e-ourse,  where  wages  are  paiel  by  the  day, 
a  uniform  rate  natually  springs  in  existence. 


*  The  Beven   larKCxt   unloim  Hpenl   .<;230,096  In 
1861  in  the  above-tiaiu<^cI  bvnrfiu. 


30 


It  is,  however,  agreed  upon  between  the  em- 
ployers  and  men.  It  is  a  mere  conven- 
tional arrangement,  and  may  be  abandoned 
by  either  side  as  soon  as  it  is  found  unj  ust  or 
oppressive.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
when  wages  have  settled  down  to  a  "  uni- 
form rate, "  that  rate  is  always  below  the 
average,  and  is  therefore  a  gain  to  the 
masters.  It  is  a  gain  to  them  in  another 
respect.  So  far  from  placing  the  competent 
on  the  same  level,  says  that  gentlemen, 
"this  'uniform  rate'  has  been  bitterly 
complained  of,  as  excluding  the  incompetent 
altogether.  At  the  Bradford  meeting  in 
1874,  one  of  the  speakers  gave,  as  a  reason 
against  trade  unions,  that  he  was  not  able 
to  earn  the  usual  rates,  and  as  the  union 
would  not  allow  any  of  its  members  to 
work  for  less,  he  could  get  no  employment 
while  he  was  a  member,  and  so  he  left.'' 
A  "  minimum  rate  "  is  the  rate  which  the 
least  competent  unionist  is  worth,  and  if 
the  man  cannot  come  up  to  that  standard 
the  trade  society  cares  not  how  soon  be 


leaves  it.  In  practice,  the  masters  never 
complain  of  this  "minimum  "  or  "uniform"' 
rate.  They  know  the  advantages  cf  it 
too  well  to  indulge  in  any  such  complaint. 
It  is  only  heard  as  an  argument  when  they 
are  airing  their  grievances,  and  laying  the 
blame  of  every  evil  under  the  sun  to  the 
action  of  trade  unions..  It  is  a  kind  of 
reasoning  which  may  fairly  be  considered  a 
special  plea. 

It  has  been  shown,  1st,  That  trade  unions 
are  the  natural  growth  of  natural  laws,  and 
that  their  development  has  been  marvel- 
lously rapid  ;  2nd,  That  their  faults  (now 
diminishing)  are  not  inherent  or  essential, 
but  are  either  excrescences  or  mere  copies 
from  other  corporations  ;  3rd,  That  the  ob- 
ject of  unionism  is  a  legitimate  and  a  noble 
one  ;  and  4th,  That  their  fitness  to  attain 
that  object  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  bril- 
liant success  which  has  characterized  their 
eftbrts.  It  remains  to  consider  what  has 
been  the  influence  of  that  success,  to  whicb 
ta^k  the  following  chapter  will  be  devoted. 


CHAPTER   V. 

TRADE    rXIOXS — THEIR    INFLUENCE. 

■Effects  of  high  wages — Desire  to  retain  a  high  social  standard — Well-paid  labor  remunerative  t» 
the  capitalist— Foreign  competition— High  wages  does  not  mean  high  prices — The  high  price 
of  coal  and  the  colliers — Co-operation — Trade  unions  stimulate  invention — Bxpenditure  by  the 
working  classes — Advantages  of  shorter  hours — Self-improvement — Moral  influence  of  trade 
unions — Endeavor  to  make  good  workmen — Educational  influence  of  trade  unions^Political 
influence — Future  of  trade  unions — Legal  requirements — Class  distinctions — Good  conduct  of 
unionists  insisted  upon — Mutual  assistance — The  union  offlcee  storehouses  of  statistics— The 
British  Association  on  trade  unions — Recapitulation  and  conclusion. 


It  remains  to  consider — 

((/)  What  is  the  influence  of  trade  unions 
on  the  trade  of  the  country  ? 

{b)  What  is  their  moral  eflfect  on  those 
who  belong  to  them  ? 

It  is,  indeed,  the  "  higgling  of  the  mar- 
ket," as  Adam  Smith  calls  it,  which  de- 
termines prices;  and  those  who  do  not 
"higgle,"  even  when  "shopping,"  will 
generally  pay  more  than  the  market  rate 
ior  their  goods.  Strikes,  then,  are  not 
only  legitimate,  but  they  are  the  inevi- 
table result  of  commercial  bargaining  for 
labor.  They  are  no  more  opposed  to 
trade  than  are  lockouts.  If  a  man  may 
say  to  his  men,  or  to  a  portion  of  them: 
"Business  is  slack,  I  give  you  a  week's 
notice,"  surely  when  the  state  of  trade  is 
reversed  the  men  may  say,  "Trade  is  brisk, 
give  us  more  wages,  or  take  a  week's  no- 
tice." "I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,"  says 
one  who  is  worth  hearing*  ' '  that  the  asso- 

■'  iJir.  J.  S.  Mill. 


elation  of  laborers,  of  a  nature  similar  to 
trade  unions,  far  from  being  a  hindrance 
to  a  free  market  for  labor,  are  the  necessary 
instrumentality  of  that  free  market — the 
indispensable  means  of  enabling  the  filers 
of  labor  to  take  due  care  of  their  own  in- 
terests under  a  system  of  competition."  It 
seems  strange  that  persons  can  be  found 
wh©  will  deny  that  all  legal  means  em- 
ployed by  those  who  live  by  labor,  to  in- 
crease the  remuneration  for  that  labor,  or 
to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor — which 
amounts  to  the  .same  thing — or  to  render 
their  means  of  living  more  secure,  are  no 
more  a  violation  of  the  principles  of  trade 
than  is  the  conduct  of  a  dealer  who  with- 
holds his  goods  from  the  market  in  order 
to  raise  their  price. 

It  has  been  shown  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter that  one  of  the  great  results  of  trade 
unionism  has  been  to  raise  wages,  and 
under  this  head,  therefore,  it  is  a  no  less 
important  inquiry — What  are  the  effects 
of   advanced   wages  on   the  trade  of   the 


country  ?  Now,  high  wages — i.e.  not  only  a 
gieater  number  of  dollars  a  week,  but  no 
diminution  in  their  purchasing  power — 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  a  great  blessing. 
A  great  deal  has  been  said  on  the  wastelul 
way  in  vrhich  the  extra  earnings  of  the 
workingmen  were  squandered  in  1870  and 
the  years  before,  and  this  will  be  treated  of 
in  the  sequel.  All  a  man's  extra  earnings, 
however,  were  not  wasted.  Some  portion 
of  them  was,  doubtle.ss,  spent  in  .sober 
uratification ,  and  in  increasing  the  comfort 
uf  the  household.  Now,  one  of  the  articles 
iu  which  there  has  been  increased  con- 
sumption is  tea.  Let  us  ask,  therefore, 
what  is  the  efiect  of  an  increased  consump- 
tion of  tea?  Itsignifies,  inlhehnstplace,  that 
more  ships  have  been  required  to  fetch  the 
tea  from  China,  to  build  which  ships  more 
men  were  required,  and  to  man  them  more 
men  were  wanted.  The  ships  had  to  be 
rigged,  which  was  good  for  the  ropemakers 
and  the  sailcloth  manufacturers,  as  well  as 
several  other  industries.  Then  when  the 
tea  arrived  here,  it  required  more  ware- 
houses and  employed  more  warehousemen, 
as  well  as  an  additional  number  of  carriers, 
both  by  rail  and  road,  to  distribute  it  over 
the  country  ;  it  required  more  paper  to 
wrap  it  in  parcels,  more  string  to  tie  them 
with.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any 
industry  whatever  that  does  not  receive 
some  advantage  from  the  increase  iu  the 
consumption  of  any  single  article  ;  and  it 
may  be  a  consolation  to  cosmopolitans  to 
be  reminded  that  the  processes  here  al- 
luded to  are  not  confined  in  their  advan- 
tages to  this  country,  but  stimulate  in  a 
similar  way  the  various  trades  in  the  dis- 
tant land  which  cultivated  the  plant ;  and 
thus  two  nations  mutually  benefit  each 
other,  and  feel  that  they  have  an  interest 
in  each  other's  prosperity.  This,  however, 
is  not  all.  The  tea  is  not  sent  here  for 
nothing  ;  we  send  out  other  commodities  in 
exchange  for  it.  The  cotton  fal)rics  from 
Lancashire,  the  woollen  cloths  from  York- 
shire, hardware  goods  from  Birmingham, 
and  steel  and  iron  manufactures  from  Shef- 
fied,  are  gathered  to  our  ports  and  sent  to 
the  east,  employing  labor  at  every  process, 
and  whenever  they  are  moved,  from  the 
time  the  raw  material  is  landed  on  our 
shores  until  the  time  that  it  is  delivered 
over  to  the  consumer  or  the  wearer  in  a  far 
-distant  land.  When  the  collier's  wife  buys 
an  alpaca  dress,  she  little  thinks  how  much 
the  world  has  been  set  in  motion  to  enable 
her  to  do  .so — how  that  Halt  wove  it,  IJipley 
dyed  it.  Lairds  built  the  ship  to  fetch  it, 
Whitworths  made  the  tools  in  order  that 
Piatt  might  make  the  machines,  in  order 
that  it  might  be  spun,  woven,  dyed,  pres.sed, 
before  it  reached  the  dre.ssmaker,  who  used 
a  needle  made  by  Mil  ward,  and  thread  by 
hrooks.  An  increase  iu  the  consumption 
of  a  commodity,  therefore,   gives  work  to 


thousands  who  would  be  otherwise  idle, 
and  has  a  tendency  to  raise  wages  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  ''just  rate,"  which  haa 
ever  been  such  a  bone  of  contention,  Thi.s 
is  the  great  point  to  remember — when  men 
are  earning  money  they  spend  it.  They 
buy  more  furniture  for  their  homes,  more 
clothes  for  their  back,  more  beer  for  their 
cellar,  more  and  better  food.  It  is  only 
when  wages  are  low  that,  like  Christopher 
Sly,  they  have  "no  more  doublets  than 
backs,  no  more  stockings  than  legs,  nor  no 
more  shoes  than  feet. ' '  The  prosperity  of 
the  workingman,  then,  increases  the  pros- 
perity of  the  butcher,  the  baker,  the  pub- 
lican, the  grocer,  the  tailor,  the  draper, 
and  all  the  manufacturers  and  industries 
upon  which  these  trades  depend.  It  may, 
indeed,  be  the  prosperity  of  the  nation 
which  causes  high  wages  ;  but  it  is  equally 
certain  that  high  wages  maintain  and  in- 
crease that  prosperity.* 

The  workingmen,  having  once  tasted  the 
sweets  of  a  prosperous  condition,  do  not 
like  to  return  to  their  old  wajs  of  poverty 
and  squalor.  They  are  always  found, 
therefore,  struggling  to  maintain  their 
wages  at  the  maximum  point  they  have 
ever  reached.  The  reluctance  which  is 
shown  to  submit  to  a  necessary  reduction 
is  evidence  in  proof  of  this.  Now  it  has 
been  shown  by  Ricardo,  Mill,  and  others, 
that  the  minimum  rate  of  wages  is  found 
amongst  men  in  that  condition  below 
which  they  do  not  choose  to  live.  If  these 
men  can  be  improved  iu  their  condition, 
and  when  that  '  'improvement  is  of  a  signal 
character,  and  a  generation  grows  up  which 
has  always  been  used  to  an  improved  scale 
of  comfort,  the  habits  of  this  new  genera- 
tion, in  respect  to  population,  become 
formed  upon  a  higher  minimum,  and  tlie 
improvement  in  their  condition  becomes 
permanent."  Here,  then,  is  an  object 
worth  striving  for — a  ' '  permanent' '  raising 
of  wages — at  any  rate,  so  permanent  that  it 
will  not  fall  for  one  generation— truly  a 
consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished,  and 
one  which  may  be  reached,  not  only  with- 
out injury  to  the  capitalist,  but  to  his  ma- 
terial prosperity  and  advantage.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  permanent  tall  in  wageH 
means  a  deterioration  in  the  "minimum" 
condition.  When  men  begin  to  fall,  they 
descend  more  rapidly  than  they  rise,  and  in 
a  few  weeks  will  tbrget  the  comforts  they 
enjoyed  for  a  few  mouths.  Facilis  direuimji 
Arerno.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  wa« 
this  "  keeping  down"  in  the  years  gone  by 
that  permanently  injured  the  condition  of 


*  The  HliopkeeperH  know  tliiH,  and  often  attHlHt 
to  maintain  a  strike  \>y  KiviiiK  H'c  men  ci«'<llt 
while  they  are  out  of  w<irk.  FCxperienco  han 
taught  them  that  when  men  havr  hi^h  "  -itc^n 
they  spend  tliem,  and  they  therefore  H-ni-i  the 
men  lo  obtain  an  a<lvance,  knowing;  mai.  bhey 
theruaelve;!  will  Mhare  Ihe  iMSueiiir.. 


32 


the  agricultural  laborers,  from  which  in- 
jury they  are  only  now  recovering.  There 
can  be  no  higher  mission  for  trade  imions 
than  that  of  raising  the  condition  of  the 
working  men  of  this  country  to  such  an 
extent  and  for  such  a  length  of  time  that 
the  point  reached  becomes  the  accepted 
minimum,  and  that  any  change  at  all  must 
be  in  an  upward  direction. 

The  laborers,  however,  must  not  expect 
to  derive  all  the  advantages  of  high  wages 
at  once.  They  must  remember  that  if 
enhanced  wages  cause  the  price  of  the  com- 
modity produced  to  be  enhanced,  the  price 
is  raised  to  them  as  well  as  to  others.  If 
the  demand  of  the  cotton  operatives  raise 
the  price  of  shirts,  the  cotton  operatives 
must  pay  more  for  thtir  shirts  just  the 
same  as  other  people.  There  is,  however, 
this  to  be  considered,  that  men  produce 
faster  than  they  consume.  Each  man  pro- 
duces more  than  is  necessary  for  his  owu 
support.  When  a  man  has  made  a  plough 
he  can  make  another  before  that  one  is 
worn  out.  The  more  there  are  made  the 
more  there  will  be  wanted  until  all  are 
supplied,  which  for  practical  purposes  may 
at  present  be  considered  a  very  remote 
future.  The  supply  creates  the  demand. 
Stockings  were  not  inquired  for  (because 
they  were  not  wanted)  until  they  were  in- 
vented ;  and  if  to-morrow  we  had  double 
the  quantity  we  have  to-day,  it  might  be 
possible  to  sell  them  at  half  the  present 
price  without  reducing  wages  at  all.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  Avagesmay  be  enhanced, 
prices  diminished,  and  proliis  increased,  at 
one  and  the  same  time,  as  those  familiar 
with  the  use  of  newly  invented  machinery 
are  well  aware.  This  explains  a  paradoxi- 
cal appearance  at  the  present  day,  that  all 
over  the  world  there  is  a  tendency  of  wages 
to  rise,  and  at  the  same  time  a  universal 
tendency  of  all  materials  to  cheapen. 
Unionism  helps  both  these  tendencies,  and 
is  thus  a  double  blessing.  It  is  probable, 
though  not  certain,  that  profits  will  be 
called  upon  to  make  the  principal  sacrifice 
in  the  future.  At  any  rate  this  is  to  be 
hoped.  Hitherto  the  consumer  has  been — 
to  use  a  vulgar  but  expressive  word — 
fleeced  ;  and  it  is  time  that  the  incidence 
of  injustice  be  either  shifted  or  annihi- 
lated." 

Although,  however,  a  rise  in  the  price  of 
labor  all  round,  taxes,  so  to  speak,  the 
laborers  themselves,  yet  it  does  not  tax 
them  to  the  full  extent  of  the  advance. 
There  is  a  race  of  beings  called  "  non-pro- 
ducers"— a  class  "sometimes  innocent, 
generally  useless,  often  noxious."  Now  a 
rise  in  wages  all  round  means  that  some  of 
the  luxuries  of  the  non-producing  class  are 
being  metamorphosed  into  extra  comforts 
'ti  luxuries  for  the  producing  class.  This  is 
a  pure  gain  to  the  producer,  in  addition  to 
otlier  gains  which  result  from  the  improve- 


ment of  his  position .  The  only  way  by 
which  laborers  could  be  deprived  of  the 
benefits  of  increased  wages,  would  be  by 
the  non-laboring  class  setting  to  work  and. 
producing  something.  They  would  then 
share  in  the  advantages  of  the  increased 
prosperity,  instead  of,  as  now,  sacrificing  a 
portion  of  their  means,  and  this  portion  i.s 
divided  amongst  the  producers.  So  long, 
however,  as  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin,  and  garner  what  they  have  not 
gathered,  they  cannot  complain  that  they 
contribute  towards  the  cost  of  those  who 
work. 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that 
well-paid  labor  is  un remunerative  to  the 
capitalist.  The  contrary  is  the  fact.  In- 
deed, that  style  of  labor  lorAvhich  no  wages 
— in  the  ordinary  sense — -are  paid,  i.s  the 
least  remunerative  of  any.  Slaves  will 
not  work.  The  low  state  of  civilization 
and  the  ignorance  of  even  the  simplest 
laws  in  which  it  is  found  necessary  to  keej) 
human  beings,  in  order  that  they  may  sub- 
mit to  slavery,  do  more  to  prevent  them 
from  working  hard  than  the  lash  does  to 
make  them  work  at  all.  It  was  pointed 
out  some  time  ago  that  "two  Middlesex 
mowers  will  mow  in  a  day  as  much  grass 
as  six  liussian  serfs  ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
dearness  of  provisions  in  England,  and 
their  cheapness  inKussia,  the  mowing  of  a 
quantity  of  hay  Avbich  would  cost  an  Eng- 
lish farmer  a  copeck  will  cost  a  Russian 
proprietor  three  or  four  copecks. "  It  was, 
in  short,  considered  as  proven  that  in 
Kussia,  where  everything  was  cheap,  the 
labor  oi'  a  serf  was  doubly  as  expensive  as 
that  of  a  laborer  in  England.  Men  will 
not  work  their  very  best  unless  they  have 
an  incentive  to  do  so.  This  great  truth 
has  at  last  made  itself  known  to  .some  of 
our  great  capitali.sts.  Sir  Thomas  Bras^(  y 
and  other  large  employers  have  found  o-t 
that  underpaid  labor  is  by  no  means  econo- 
mical. Here  are  a  few  proofs — When  the 
North  Devon  Eailway  was  being  mad», 
men  were  working  at  2.9.  a  day  at  first,  then 
2s.  6f/.,  and  then  os.  6d.  Nevertheless  it 
was  found  that  the  work  was  execittfd 
more  cheaply  at  the  highest  rate  than  at  the 
lowest  rate.  So  also  in  carrying  out  thelarjje 
.sewage  works  in  Oxford  Street,  London, 
bricklayers  were  gradually  raised  from  6k. 
to  10s.  a  day,  and  at  the  higher  rate  of 
Avages  bricks  were  laid  at  a  cheaper  rate  : 
while  at  the  building  of  Basingstoke  sta- 
tion one  London  Avorkman  at  5s.  6(/.  a  day 
did  more  work  than  three  country  ones  at 
3s.  (id.  each.  Many  other  instances  might 
be  added,  all  showing  that  intelligent 
Avorkmen  well  paid  are  cheaper  than  Viad 
workmen  ill  paid.  As  Mr.  Frederic  Har- 
rison puts  it  :  "  The  workman  whose  intel- 
ligence requires  no  more  than  the  minimum 
of  supervision  is  a  cheap  bargain  even  at 
the  maximum  wages."    "  It  is  said  by  one 


33 


j!'  oar  factory  inspectors  that  in  France 
one  workman  looks  after  14  spindles.  In 
England  one  minder  and  two  assistants 
can  manage  a  mule  with  2,'ZH)  spindles.  It 
is  an  obvious  economy  to  employ  such  a 
minder  at  even  higher  rates  as  compared 
with  the  Fiench.  This  is  the  progress  by 
which,  in  our  cotton  industry,  as  in  so 
many  others,  wages  have  been  rising,  pro- 
fits have  been  growing,  and  goods  ha^e 
been  cheapened  all  at  the  same  lime."  In- 
creased wages  aie  always  to  be  got  when 
there  is  an  increase  in  the  product  of  labor, 
although  even  the  rate  of  wages  be  lower. 
Thus  aspinnerinGlaiigow  (Messis.  Houlds- 
worth's)  employed  on  a  mule,  and  spin- 
ning cotton  120  hanks  to  the  pov.nd,  pro- 
duced in  1823,  working  74-2  hours  in  the 
week,  46  pounds  of  yarn,  his  nett  weekly 
earnings  for  which  amounted  to  26s.  Id. 
In  1833,  the  rate  of  wages  having  in  the 
meantime  been  reduced  13^  per  cent.,  and 
the  time  of  workirg  having  been  lessened 
to  69  hours,  the  spinner  was  enabled,  by 
the  greater  perfection  of  the  machinery,  to 
produce  on  a  mule  of  the  same  number 
cf  spindles,  52t  pounds  of  yarn  of  the  same 
fineness,  and  his  nett  weekly  eainings  ad- 
vanced to  29.s.  lOd.  Similar  causes  raised 
the  rf  muneration  of  the  fast  spinners  from 
58.  Gd.  a  week  in  1871  by  successive  grada- 
tions to  9.S.  in  1872  ;  and  almost  every  trade 
can  tell  the  same  story.  Sir  Thomas 
Brassey  strengthens  this  position  by  point- 
ing out  that  in  the  construction  of  the 
Paris  and  Konen  Railway,  although  the 
English  navvies  earned  5.s'  a  day,  while  the 
Frenchmen  employed  received  only  2.s.  Gd. 
a  day,  yet  it  was  found,  on  comparing  the 
cost  of  two  adjacent  cuttings  in  precisely 
similir  circumstances,  that  the  excavation 
was  made  at  a  lower  co't  per  cubic  yard  by 
the  English  navvies  than  by  the  French 
laborers  ;  and  it  mast  be  remembered,  too, 
that  the  former  worked  one  and  a  half 
hours  a  day  less  than  the  latter.  Another 
authority  has  told  us  that,  a  few  years  ago, 
ten  laborers  in  Ireland  raised  the  same 
quantity  of  produce  that  four  laborers 
raised  in  England,  and  the  result  of  the 
work  of  the  one  was  generally  inferior  in 
quality  to  tVat  of  the  other.  Quarry- 
owners  tell  the  same  tale,  and  it  was  the 
opinion  cf  the  late  Sir  Francis  Crossley 
that  our  agricultural  laborers  would  do 
more  work  if  they  were  better  paid. 

Although,  therefore,  wages  increase, 
labor  does  not  become  dearer.  This  is  very 
gratifying,  because  it  can  hardly  bedoubte  d 
that  the  spread  of  education,  and  the  com- 
forts which  follow  from  it,  will  induce  the 
working  man  to  work  less  hard,  and  for 
shorter  time,  for  increased  wages,  than  he 
has  hitherto  done.  The  facta  aV)ove  stated, 
too,  should  serve  to  lay  that  frightful  hob- 
goblin— "  foreign  competition."  A  ship  can 
hardly  be  launched  in  America,  or  a  fur- 


nace lighted  in  Belgium,  but  England  ia 
[  assured  that  in  consequence  of  strikes  the 
trade  is  leaving  the  country.  The  most 
trade  will  always  be  found  where  there  are 
the  best  workmen,  and  the  argument  of 
these  pages  shows  how  these  are  to  be 
made.  It  is  very  amusing  to  notice  that 
while  British  capitalists  pretend  to  be 
alarmed  at  foreign  comijetition,  every  na- 
tion under  the  sun  is  afraid  of  English 
competition.  When  our  cotton  manufac- 
turers were  earning  12s.  to  15s.  a  week, 
those  iu  France,  Belgium,  and  Germany 
were  earning7.«.  3d.  to  9s.  7d.,  andthosein 
Russia  were  coLtent  with  2s.  4d.  to  2s.  lid.; 
and  yet  the  one  thing  dreaded  by  the  con- 
tinental nations  mentioned  was  actually 
the  competition  of  the  British. 

Professor  Cairns,  a  careful  and  thought- 
ful economist,  admits  that  it  is  often  bet- 
ter to  employ  good  workmen  at  high  wages 
than  to  employ  bad  workmen  at  low  wages. 
It  is  strange,  however,  that  in  another 
argument  the  Professor  overlooks  that  ad- 
mission. He  places  the  power  of  a  trade 
union  at  a  lower  point  than  any  other 
economist  who  has  given  them  a  word  of 
praise.  He  states  that  all  the  union  can 
do  is  to  enfon  e  a  rise  when  it  should  take 
place — and  not  always  then  ;  but  he  thinks 
them  incompetent  io  obtain  a  rise  when 
the  economic  conditions  do  not  warrant  a 
rise.  Surely  Piolessor  Caiins  misunder- 
stands the  object  of  a  trade  union,  if  he 
think  a  part  of  its  programme  is  to  attempt 
to  obtain  a  rise  when  economic  conditions 
do  not  warrant  such  rise.  Failure  would 
be  certain  to  follow  such  a  policy.  The 
differences  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed do  not  arise  from  any  such  notion, 
but  from  the  general  policy  of  the  masters 
in  systematically  refusirg  to  acknowledge 
that  the  economic  conditions  are  ever  such 
as  to  warrant  a  rise.  As  Professor  Cairns 
says,  the  question  is  :  "is  there  a  margin 
of  wealth  which  woikmen  by  any  com- 
bination can  conquer?"  The  men  thin> 
there  is  not  a  mere  margin,  but  a  vast  ter- 
ritory to  which  they  are  entitled,  and  the 
experiences  of  the  past  lill  them  with  sure 
and  certain  hopes  as  to  the  future.  They 
see  the  final  result,  and  are  determined 
upon  its  speedy  realization.  Nor  do  they 
fear  that  which  Profe.ssor  Cairns  dreads, 
vi^.,  thafc  in  consequence  of  advanced 
wages,  capital  must  be  withdrawn,  and 
wages  therefore  fall.  Such  can  only  be  the 
ca.se  when  wag»s  are  vnduli/  advanced, 
about  which  there  need  be  no  alarm.  At 
any  rate,  the  workmen  have  no  such  fear. 
They  are  alive  to  the  admission  made  by 
Professor  Cairns,  to  which  allusion  hji.s  l)een 
made  ;  and  they  are  a(<iuaint< d  with  the 
facts  above  given,  .showing  that  well-paid, 
intelligent  artisan.^,  when  not  over-worked 
are  always  cheapest  iu  the  end. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here,  in  pareathe 


M 


sis,  that  althongh  trede  unions  have  a  far 
more  powerful  influence  over  wages — con- 
stantly imparting  an  upward  tendency — 
than  Prolessor  Cairns  imagines,  yet  it  is 
likewise  an  error  on  the  part  of  those  who 
think  that  trade  unionism  seeks  to  deter- 
mine the  rate  of  wages.  It  cannot  do  that ; 
it  cannot  do  more  than  affect  them.  A 
trade  society  may  retard  a  fall  or  accele 
rate  a  rise,  but  it  cannot  change  the  law 
which  regulates  the  fluctuations,  or  render 
permanent  that  which  in  its  very  essence 
is  temporary. 

It  is  at  once  seen  that  the  instances  of 
well-paid  but  remunerative  labor,  added 
to  those  facts  which  were  adduced  in  sup- 
port of  a  similar  argument  in  the  previous 
chapter  in  regard  to  the  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor,  show  thai  the  bentficial 
efifects  of  the  success  of  unionism  on  the 
trade  of  the  country  are  not  at  the  co.st  of 
the  capitalist,  but  to  his  advantage  and 
that  that  advantage  is  not  less  but  greater 
by  his  paying  higher  wages  for  shorter  hours. 

It  was  very  surprising  to  notice  the  facil- 
ity with  which  the  employers,  in  1874, 
forced  a  general  reduction  of  wages.  Even 
if  the  fall  in  price  demanded  such  a  reduc- 
tion— which  is  by  no  means  clear— yet  it  is 
strange  that  the  men  so  readily  belieied 
their  employers.  Great  care  is  taken  to 
register  the  prices  of  all  commodities ; 
very  little  attention  is  bestowed  to  regis- 
tering the  TSitf-s  of  wages.  It  is.  I  think, 
Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  who  points  ont  that 
even  newspapers,  speaking  of  commodities, 
announce  an  "upward  tendency,"  or  a 
"slight  improvement, ■' or  "an  increased 
buoyancy;"  but  that  no  such  steps  are 
taken  in  regard  to  labor.  On  the  other 
hand,  "one  of  the  most  experienced  engi- 
neers in  England,  the  secretary  of  one  of 
our  mo -t  useful  commissions,  has  repeatedly 
said  that  he  never  knew  a  labor  question  in 
which  employers  published  the  truth." 
The  inconsistency  of  the  employers,  too,  is 
often  very  startling.  Thus  when  the  We^t 
Yorkshire  colliers  demanded  an  increase  of 
wages,  because  the  price  of  coal  had  ad- 
vanced, the  reply  of  the  owners  was  that 
the  price  of  coal  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  the  rate  of  wages.  No  sooner, 
however,  did  coal  fall  than  the  owners 
demanded  a  reduction  of  wages,  statirg 
that  although  "the  price  of  coal  did  not 
directly  control  the  ratio  of  the  rate  of 
wages,  yet  they  could  not  conceal  from 
themselves  that  it  had  some  effect,  and  that 
it  was,  at  any  rate,  an  index  of  the  time 
when  a  rise  or  fall  in  wages  should  take 
place."  It  is  a  pity  they  did  not  see  this 
when  an  increase  was  demanded  !  When, 
too,  the  men  have  asked  for  an  advance  of, 
say,  10  per  cent  ,  and  the  masters  have  not 
only  refused  it.  but,  as  has  often  taken 
place,  demanded  a  reduction  of  10  per 
cent,  out  of  sheer  opposition,  it  is  indeed 


surprising  that  the  men  have  shown  so 
much  forbearance.  With  some  few  excep- 
tions, the  men  have  asked  for  ' '  Peace  on 
fair  terms;"  and  the  employers  have  an- 
swered, "  War,  and  an  unconditional  sur- 
render." The  men  have  asked  for  bread, 
and  have  received  a  stone.  One  of  the  best 
influences  th^t  trade  unionism  can  have  on 
the  trade  of  the  country  is  the  one  which 
teaches  the  employers  that  what  is  sought 
is  not  a  favor,  but  justice  ;  and  that  as  the 
manufacturer  makts  as  much  as  he  can  out 
of  the  dealer,  so  will  the  weaver  make  as 
much  as  he  can  out  of  the  manufacturer. 
The  sooner  the  employers  see  this  the 
better.  Professor  Fawcett  says  "there 
must  constantly  be  a  deadening  iDfinence 
depressing  industry  as  long  as  antagoni.'-m 
of  interest  continues  between  tmployeis 
and  employed,  and  the  noblest,  highest, 
and  in  every  sense  best  efforts  of  trade 
unionism  are  those  that  tend  to  remove 
that  antagonism." 

There  can,  indeed,  be  little  doubt  that 
the  unions  have  made  many  a  great  and 
praiseworthy  sacrifice  in  sulmitting  to  re- 
ductions. In  order  to  avoid  a  collision  the 
men  have  yielded  their  just  rights  with 
very  little  grumbling.  It  by  bo  mfans 
follows  that  because  coal  falls  in  price  that 
wage.^  must  immediately  fall.  In  order  to 
justify  a  fall  in  wages,  it  is  necessary  that 
the  price  of  coal  (or,  of  course,  any  other 
commodity  that  may  be  under  considera- 
tion) should  fall  below  that  point  at  which 
an  advance  took  place.  The  nifLhavea 
right  to  resist  any  attempt  to  r«  dn..e  wages 
until  such  a  state  of  affairs  cr met  a",  nut. 

There  is  another  economic  efftet  o)  wade 
unionism  which  deserves  at  leafet  a  passing 
mention.  The  knowledge  that  men  have 
the  power  to  strike,  stimulates  the  inventive 
faculties  of  employers.  A  strike  is  not  al- 
ways confi' f  <1  in  its  effects  to  the  particu- 
lar branch  of  the  trade  that  makes  demards 
from  the  employer.  A  strike  of  puddleis 
enforces  idieness  on  other  ironworkers ; 
while  "finishers"  cannot  work  if  "fullers" 
won't.  It  is,  therefore,  to  the  advantage 
of  the  employers  to  have  the  various  pro- 
cesses of  manufacture  as  independent  of 
each  other  as  possible,  ^o  that  if  one  depart- 
ment strikes,  the  necessity  of  another 
being  idle  may  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
This  is  accomplished  by  the  introduction  of 
machinery,  rendering  less  and  less  neces- 
sary the  skill  of  workmen.  Mr.  Nasmyth, 
by  mechanical  contrivances,  reduced  thfe 
number  of  his  men  from  3000  to  1500 
without  reducing  the  production.  It  has 
been  observed  that,  in  consequence  of 
almisst  all  great  strikes,  the  employers 
have  set  their  wits  to  work,  as  the  saying 
is,  and  have  invented  such  improvements 
that  they — and  through  them  the  world — 
have  been  very  great  gainers.  A  notable 
instance  of  this  is  found  in  the  history  of 


35 


the  straggle  in  1851  of  the  engineers  with 
their  masters,  to  which  reference  has  been 
already  made.  The  process  alluded  to  is 
going  on  at  present  very  rapidly.  In  the 
iron  industries  especially,  the  improvements 
in  material,  and  the  almost  daily  introduc- 
tion of  newly  invented  labor-saving  con- 
trivances have  resulted  in  one  man  being 
able  to  do  what  two  and  a  half  men  were 
required  to  do  thirty  years  ago,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  important  fact  that  the 
material  is  ten  times  more  durable  than  it 
was,  and  the  machines  wear  out  much 
more  slowly.  These  facts  not  only  bear 
out  the  argument,  but  should  induce  the 
men  to  strengthen  their  unions,  to  compete 
with  the  displaced  labor;  and,  wherever 
possible,  reap  two  profits  by  becoming 
owners  of  the  machines  they  construct,  as 
was  long  ago  suggested  by  the  late  Mr. 
John  Kane. 

The  doctrine  that  that  policy  is  best 
which  gi%e8the  greatest  good  to  the  great- 
est number,  has  become  an  axiom.  Now, 
in  every  commanity  the  majority  must 
always  consist  of  working  men  and  their 
families,  and  it  does  seem  a  natural  way  of 
proceeding  that,  if  you  give  a  greater  hap- 
piness to  a  greater  number,  a  step  is  being 
made  towards  realizing  Bentham's  cele- 
brated dictum.  The  moral  effects,  then,  of 
high  wages  are  great.  Of  course  they  might 
be  greater,  but  a  little  experience  will 
bring  that  about.  Strikes,  therefore,  and 
the  trade  societies  which  render  strikes  pos- 
sible, are,  for  these  various  reasons,  not  a 
mischievous,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  valua- 
ble part  of  the  existing  machinery  of  so- 
ciety. 

It  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation  to 
discuss  here  the  great  advantages  of  mors 
leisure  to  the  working  class,  but  as  it  is 
one  of  the  objects  of  a  trade  union  to  ob- 
tain shorter  hours,  and  as  the  realization 
of  such  a  policy  has  a  very  beneficial  elilect 
on  those  who  belong  to  trade  societie",  the 
question  cannot  be  passed  over  without  a 
few  words*  The  advantages  of  recreation 
are  acknowledged,  but  few  steps  are  taken 
to  afford  the  means  to  indulge  in  it. 

The  men  in  various  trades  are  not  only 
showing  a  desire  to  generally  improve 
themselves,  but  to  obtain  a  deeper  knowl- 
edge of  their  oven  particular  trades.  Some 
time  ago,  Mr.  Wilcock,  the  then  president 
of  the  London  irioyal  Lodge  of  the  General 
Union  of  Carpenters,  of  England,  initiated 
a  series  of  lectures  to  its  members,  and  the 
president  himself  delivered  one  on   "The 


*It  has  already  been  pointed  out  tliat  a  lon^- 
hoiirs  day  means  dear  labor.  Mr.  Tliorold  ItoKCrs 
baa  Hhown,  in  Iiis  recent  work,  that  it  is  also  in- 
compatible with  good  workinani-liip.  Hpenliiiif; 
of  the  excellent  nianonry  of  Merlon  Tower,  Ox- 
ford, four  liundred  yearH  old,  he  Mays,  "'  I  am  per- 
suaded that  Huch  .perfect  inawonrv  would  have 
been  incompatible  with  u  long-houra  day  !" 


Knowledge  and  U.se  of  Scales  as  Applied 
to  the  Building  Trade."  The  following 
month  Mr.  Dise  gave  a  lecture  on  freehand 
drawing.  At  present,  in  London,  there 
are  several  technical  classes  conducted  by 
artisans,  and  the  City  of  Guilds  Institute 
as  well  as  the  Polytechnic  Institution,  and 
the  Artisans'  Technical  Association,  are 
doing  much  to  promote  that  object. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  effect  of 
thus  teaching  men  that  what  their  hands 
find  to  do  should  be  done  with  all  their 
might,  however  weak  that  might  may  be. 
Men  are  made  for  something  better  than 
to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  draweis  of  wa- 
ter. Indeed,  the  plan  of  lectuiing  just  re- 
ferred to,  rapidly  bears  fruit,  and  some  of 
the  members  of  the  union  mentioned  have, 
on  account  of  their  superior  knowledge  of 
their  trade,  been  appointed  head  foremen 
to  some  of  the  principal  firms.  Other 
unions  have  similar  means  ot  improving 
their  members  and  raising  their  tastes  ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that,  ere  long,  the 
practice  will  be  universal.  The  more  time 
the  unions  can  obtain  for  their  men  to  do 
this  (and  workmen  thus  educated  will  be 
better  workmen)  the  better  it  will  be  ;  and 
it  is,  therefore,  for  the  unions  to  strnt^gle. 
with  all  the  means  in  their  power,  in  order 
that  the  men  may  get  as  much  wages  as 
they  can  (without  infringing  upon  that 
limit  when  their  productions  would  be  un- 
remunerative)  for  as  little  work  as  possible, 
performed  with  a  minimum  of  inconveni- 
ence. 

Indeed,  the  great  advantage  of  union 
men  over  non-union  men  is  being  discov- 
ered by  the  employers,  and  they  are  be- 
ginning to  acknowledge  the  fact.  A  Liver- 
pool carpenter  recently  told  the  author  that 
the  bosses  knew  the  union  men  were  the 
best  workmen,  and  that  it  was  a  regular 
thing  to  give  them  one  penny  per  hour 
more  than  the  rate  fixed  upon  by  the 
society.  This  is  not  surprising,  as  no  man 
can  be  a  union  carpenter  unless  he  be  in 
good  health,  have  worked  a  certain  number 
of  years  at  the  trade,  be  a  good  workman, 
of  steady  habits  and  good  moral  character. 

Unionists  are  not  desirous  ol  having  in- 
competent or  unsteady  workmen  ns  asso- 
ciates. They  can  see  that  such  men  do  us 
much  to  lower  wages  as  anything  eKse.  The 
good  workmen  know  this,  and  they  crowd 
into  the  unions  as  fa.'^t  as  they  can.  Of 
course  it  is  not  maintained  here  that  all 
unionist  workmen  are  proHcient.  There 
are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Heveral  unionistH 
who  are  not  good  workmen  ;  but  there  are 
few  good  workmen  who  are  not  unionists. 
The  men  out  of  union  an-,  for  "theino.st 
part,  either  inferior  workmen,  employed 
on  inferior  work  at  reduced  rate.s,  or  tlio.'<e 
wlio  have  belonged  to  it  and  are  erased.  Of 
these  last,  .some  left  beoau.se  they  <Iid  not 
wi.sh  to  pay  to  it,  or,  indeed,  to  anylhino 


36 


else  that  they  could  avoid  ;  and  the  rest, 
by  tar  the  greatest  number,  are  those  who 
have  been  erased  lor  non-payment  through 
their  unfortunate  habits  ot  intemperance, 
which  left  them  no  means  of  paying."  The 
trade  unions  may  fairly  consider  whether 
or  not  it  comes  within  their  province  to 
take  even  stronger  measures  to  ensure  the 
efficiency  of  their  members.  A  "more 
der^v'u*  stabdard  of  efficiency"  than  at 
present  might  be  decided  upon,  so  that  a 
man's  union  ticket  would  be  a  standard  of 
comjietency,  and  accepted  as  such  by  the 
■employeis. 

li  something  of  this  kind  were  practica- 
ble in  every  trade—  and  the  unions  have  an 
excellent  organization  for  carrying  out  the 
suggestion — it  would  be  of  infinite  bene- 
fit to  the  community.  The  employers  would 
readily  acknowledge  certificates  of  profi- 
ciency issued  by  the  unions.  It  may  be 
added  that  the  unions  are  showing  a  lauda- 
ble desire  to  take  a  high  tone  in  regard  to 
this  matter.  They  have,  over  and  over 
again,  protested  against  the  "scamping" 
ot  work  and  cheating  of  purchasers,  against 
jerry  building,  sizing  cotton,  etc.,  etc.  They 
are  not  "  the  fault  ot  the  artisan — they  are 
his  misfortune,"  says  an  official  report,  and 
continues:  "We  know,  from  experience, 
that  the  properly-trained  and  highly-skilled 
workman  is  the  first  to  suffer  by  the  shame- 
ful process.  When  circumstances  press  him 
into  this  circle  of  competition,  he  has  to 
undergo  a  second  apprenticeship  to  acquire 
this  .sleight  of-hand  system,  during  which 
he  earns  less  wages."  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes 
thinks  the  unions  "are  powerful  enough 
now  lo  insist,  if  they  choose  to  do  so,  that 
no  unionist  shall  work  where  such  prac- 
tices prevail."  Mr.  Thorold  Rogers  takes 
a  similar  view,  adding  that  the  men  should 
protect  the  public,  denouncing  and  expos- 
ing "dishonest  and  scantling  work."  I 
may  add  that  the  desire  of  the  workmen 
in  the  direction  above  indicated,  is  shown 
by  the  objection,  on  the  part  of  artisans, 
to  clerks  and  others  studying  in  technical 
classes,  lest  such  should  learn  just  sufficient 
to  he  a  dabbler  at  the  trade,  and  rnus  cause 
to  be  thrown  into  the  market  a  quantity  of 
incompetent  labor.  The  same  feeling  is 
shown  in  the  desire  for  sound  regulations 
in  regard  to  apprentices,  for  it  is  obvious 
that  any  skilled  trade,  not  protected  by  an 
apprenticeship  system,  must  always  occupy 
a  low  status. 

The  most  important  educational  work 
which  the  trade  unions  are  performing,  is 
that  of  familiarizing  the  workman — and, 
for  that  matter,  the  employer  as  well — with 
the  true  relations  of  capital  to  labor.  The 
unions  are  doing  good  work  in  another  di- 
rection. Their  attention  is  not  solely  con- 
fined to  questions  affecting  capital  and 
labor.  The  trade  unions  not  only  wish 
the  laborers  to  be  good  workmen — they  are 


also  determined  to  make  them  good  citi- 
zens, and  are  anxious  to  do  away  with  all 
class  distinctions.  Tke  men  are  beginning 
to  feel  "the  glorious  privilege  of  being  in- 
dependent." It  is  time  they  did.  Nothing 
tends  so  much  to  degrade  a  class  as  the 
knowledge  that  it  is  dependent.  The  day 
has  gone  by  when  a  man  must  feel  loyal 
and  dutiful  to  another  simply  because  he 
has  been  born  on  his  estate,  or  because  he 
works  in  his  factory.  The  men  are  willinij 
enough  to  receive  the  ambassador  of  the 
employer  with  all  due  respect,  but  they  de- 
mand (on  the  peril  of  a  strike)  that  their 
own  delegates  shall  be  equally  well  re- 
ceived. It  is  now  acknowledged  that  the 
demeanor  most  fitting  towards  the  poor  is 
that  which  is  most  fitting  towards  every 
one.  The  leaders  of  the  unions  have  per- 
ceived that  the  general  tendency  of  human 
progress  is  in  this  direction,  and  they  have 
detei  mined  not  to  oppose,  but  to  assist  it. 

It  is  not  only  part  of  the  policy  of  trade 
unions  to  demand,  as  rights,  tbofe  privi- 
leges which  are  now  withheld  fiom  them, 
but  also  to  render  their  nt  mbeis  fit  to  ex- 
eicise  those  rights.  It  has  already  been 
shewn  that  civility  to  Iheir  emplojeis,  as 
well  as  sobiiety,  aie  essential  betoie  a  man 
ear  lee  erne  a  practical  trsde  unionist. 

When  men  s^ee  lules,  and  subscribe  to 
them,  egainst  ceitain  wrong-doinfi  and  evil 
practices,  they  (lor  use  doth  breed  a  habit 
in  a  man)  look  upon  those  practices  as 
nrovg,  and  they  soon  become,  in  every  way, 
better  men.  Not  only  do  the  unions  take 
steps  to  prevent  evil,  they  exert  the  mselvts 
to  promote  good. 

A  great  deal  is  made  by  anti-unionists  of 
the  notion  that  when  a  man  joins  a  union 
he  loses  his  liberty ,  and  becomes  a  slave  to 
the  union  agent  or  the  union  efficers.  It 
may  be  veiy  propeily  replied  that  a  man, 
if  he  likes,  has  a  right  to  give  up  his  lib- 
eity.  The  argument,  however,  if  such  it 
can  be  called,  is  wiong  in  fact.  The  work- 
man in  delegating  the  task  of  asking  more 
wages,  instead  of  asking  them  personally, 
is  no  more  giving  up  his  libeity  than  a 
client  is  in  hiring  an  advocate  to  plead  for 
him  to  a  jury.  The  men  in  a  union  come 
together  of  their  own  accord  :  they  do  not 
so,  and  do  not  remain  so,  unless  they  think 
it  to  their  advantage  ;  and  they  can  leave 
the  society  whenever  they  like.  To  ray 
that  this  is  giving  up  one's  libeity,  is  ftie 
same  in  principle  as  sayir  g  that  a  mai  in 
obeying  certain  laws  of  his  country,  ot 
which  he  disapproves,  is  giving  up  his 
liberty.  It  has  always  been  an  acknowl- 
edged principle  that  a  man  may  voluntarily 
submit  to  certain  restrictions  on  his  liberty 
for  the  common  good. 

The  trade  unionist,  too,  is  much  freer  in 
regard  to  his  union  than  is  the  citizen  in 
regard  to  the  State.  It  is  with  great  dilu- 
culty  the  latter  can  throw  off  his  obliga- 


tioiis,  and  then  but  to  rest  under  freen 
restrictions  ;  but  the  former  can  do  so  wixii 
the  greatest  facility,  though,  for  reasons 
mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  he  seldom 
avails  himself  of  the  opportunity. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  most  trade  unions 
are  benefit  societies,  they  have  all  the  in- 
fluence (and  none  of  the  flummery)  which 
flows  from  those  bodies.  To  teach  men  to 
prepare  for  a  rainy  day,  to  lay  by  for  old 
age,  to  protect  themselves  from  poverty  in 
case  of  accident  or  failing  health,  loss  of 
tools,  etc.,  and  to  reward  merit  and  incul- 
cate the  principle  of  brotherly  love  and 
benevolence,  are  surely  laudable  objects, 
and  so  long  as  the  criteria  are  sound,  they 
cannot  help  but  have  a  good  influence  upon 
those  who  are  prudent  enough  to  deny 
themselves  to-day,  in  order  that  they  may 
enjoy  to-morrow. 

These  societies,  too,  are  exceedingly  use- 
ful in  the  mass  of  valuable  statistics  they 
collect.  The  death  rates  and  the  causes  of 
death  in  various  trades  point  to  a  field  in 
which  medical  men  may  work  to  great  ad- 
vantage ;  while  the  fluctuations  in  the  rates 
of  wages,  and  the  gradual  shortening  of 
hours  present  au  equally  interesting  pro- 
blem to  political  economists.  This  infor- 
mation, too,  is  given  for,  comparatively 
speaking,  small  districts,  and  the  problems 
referred  to  can  therefore  be  studied  when 
local  influences  interfere  with  general  laws. 
Altogether,  there  is  ample  food  for  both  the 
student,  the  philosopher,  and  the  states- 
man, in  the  vast  amount  of  literature  that 
is  annually  issued  by  the  trade  unions  ; 
and  which,  by  the  way,  must  keep  em- 
ployed a  great  number  of  printers,  thus 
benefiting  a  trade  by  the  mere  action  of 
recording  the  experience  of  their  existence. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  combination 
amongst  workmen  has  existed  ever  since 
men  had  the  intelligence  to  understand 
that  they  were  oppressed  by  those  whose 
position  gave  them  the  power  to  oppress. 
The  power  to  combine  became  more  and 
more  generally  acknowledged,  until  at 
length,  in  spite  of  unjust  and  partial  laws, 
trade  unions  became  a  fact.  From  combi- 
nations against  oppression  they  developed 
into  associations  having  for  their  object  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ing class  It  has  also  been  shown  that  the 
organization  of  a  trade  union  is  pre-emi- 
nently fitted  to  carry  out  that  object,  and, 
as  proof  of  that,  it  has  been  argued  :  1st, 
That  trade  unions  have  succeeded  in  rais- 
ing wages  and  reducing  the  number  of 
working  hours.  2d,  That  these  reforms  do 
not  benefit  the  laborer  at  the  cost  of  either 
the  capitalist  or  the  consumer  ;  as,  between 
certain  limits,  it  is  found  that  high  pay 
and  the  prospect  of  an  early  cessation  from 
work  are  such  incentives  to  industry  that 
the   produce  of  labor   is  actually  greater 


than  under  a  system  of  long  hours  and  low 
pay.  3d,  That  the  workmen  have  such 
confidence  in  the  benefits  they  derive  Irom 
union,  that,  after  the  experience  of  "half 
a  millennium,"  they  are  crowding  into  so- 
cieties, into  unions,  in  a  greater  ratio  every 
year.  4th,  That  their  dtclared  object  is  to 
prevent  strikes,  and  substitute  arbitrations; 
and  although  the  latter  mode  of  settling 
disputes  is  often  proposed'  by  the  men  «od 
refused  by  the  masters,  it  is  seldom  pro- 
posed by  the  masters  and  still  less  olten 
refused  by  the  men.  It  has  been  argued 
further,  that  such  being  Iheobjects  of  trade 
unions,  and  such  their  success  in  obtaining 
those  objects,  the  influence  of  that  success 
must  be  very  beneficial  ;  1st,  Because  high 
wages  means  increased  comfoits,  which  are 
not  only  a  social  but  a  commercial  advan- 
tage. High  wages  means  incieastd  pro- 
duction, also  the  double  bkssirg  just  men- 
tioned. 2d,  Because  high  wages  dots  not 
mean  enhanced  prices,  but  the  contrary. 
3d,  Because  the  principles  of  trade  union- 
ism teach  men  the  prudence  of  denying 
themselves  something  today,  in  order  that 
they  may  have  greater  advantages  tomor- 
row ;  and  the  duty  of  self-saciifite,  by 
calling  upon  them  to  contribute,  out  of 
their  meagre  wealth,  towards  the  allevia- 
of  the  sufferings  of  their  fellow-men.  4th, 
Because  trade  unions  endeavor  to  obtain 
for  the  working  classes  more  leisure  for  re- 
creation and  study.  5th,  Because  hy  lec- 
tures and  other  means,  the  unionsendeavor 
to  make  their  members  better  woiknien  ; 
and  by  rules  which  stigmatize  and  punish 
the  idle,  the  vicious,  and  the  incompetent, 
do  all  in  their  power  to  make  workmen 
better  citizens.  It  makes  clear  to  them 
that  capital  does  not  make  the  man,  and 
that  a  laborer  is  no  worse  because  he  works. 
"Jack  is  as  good  as  his  master  ;"  and  the 
men  know  that  if  employers  would  only 
acknowledge  this — if  they  would  only  meet 
their  workmen  as  men  on  an  equal  looting 
with  themselves,  and  discuss  the  wages 
system  with  them,  as  the  late  Mr.  Brassey, 
Mr.  E.  Akroyd,  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  and 
others  were  in  the  habit  of  doing — then 
strikes  would  be  impossible. 

It  is  really  difficult  to  conceive  how  an 
institution  with  such  noble  objects,  having 
attained  those  objects,  can  be  anylhinj;  but 
a  great  blessing  to  the  community  in  which 
it  is  placed. 

Trade  unionism,  then,  has  a  great  future 
before  it.  Its  ultimate  result  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  to  convince  both  employer 
and  employed  that  they  are  the  truest 
friends,  each  of  the  other,  for  each  derives 
his  revenue  from  the  other.  The  prosperity 
of  the  country  is  greatly  due  to  the  influ- 
ence of  unions  on  trade,  and  therefore  that 
influence  benefits  the  capitalist  as  well  na 
the  workman. 


3» 


APPKNDIX. 


THE   AMERICAN   FEDERATION   OF    LABOR — ITS   HISTORY  .-^ND  AIMS. 

By  p.  J.  McGuiKE. 


The  National  Labor  Union — Various  national  labor  conventions,  from  1866  to  1876 — Industrial  pania 
of  1873  to  1878 — Sovereigns  of  Industrv — Patrons  of  Husbandry — Industrial  Brotherhood — Junior 
Sons  of  "76 — International  Labor  Union — Amalgamated  Labor  Union — The  Pittsburgh  Conven- 
tion of  1881 — Formation  of  the  Federation  of  Trades — Legislation  secured  in  Congress — Negotia- 
tions with  the  Kuights  of  Labor — The  general  eight-hour  movement  in  May,  1886 — Difierences 
with  the  Knights  of  Labor— Birth  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor — Its  component  parts 
and  objects. 


Early  in  the  year  1866  the  trades'  assem- 
blies of  New  York  City  and  Baltimore  is- 
sued a  call  for  a  National  Labor  Congress, 
and,  in  accordance  with  that  appeal,  one 
hundred  delegates,  representing  sixty  open 
and  secret  labor  organizations  of  all  kinds, 
and  covering  an  area  of  territory  extend- 
ing from  Portland,  Me.,  to  San  Francisco, 
met  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  on  August  20.  A 
number  of  the  labor  organizations  there 
represented  were  merely  local  unions,  but 
a  great  many  were  national  and  interna- 
tional bodies,  such  as  ship  carpenters,  rail- 
road men,  miners,  painters,  carriers,  win- 
dow-glass blowers,  stone  masons,  marble 
cutters  and  iron  moulders. 

At  that  convention  committees  were  ap- 
pointed to  look  into  the  expediency  of  in- 
troducing the  eight-kour  system,  of  taking 
political  action,  and  forming  a  permanent 
national  organization.  The  questions  of 
public  domain,  the  national  debt,  co-op- 
erative associations,  strikes,  and  convict 
labor  were  fully  discussed,  and  measures 
were  adopted  for  the  organization  of  sewing 
women — a  movement  which  at  this  day  is 
occupying  the  attention  of  labor  circles  in 
New  York  City.  Among  the  many  resolu- 
tions passed  was  one  favoring  the  speedy 
restoration  of  agriculture  in  the  South,and 
the  upbuilding  of  that  section  upon  a  new 
basis  of  industrial  advancement. 

In  the  following  year  the  second  annual 
congress  of  the  National  LaVjor  Union  was 
held  in  Chicago,  attended  by  over  two  hun- 
dred delegates,  representing  trades'  unions 
in  all  the  Northern  States  and  in  six 
Southern  States.  President  Z.  C.  Whaley, 
in  his  report,  urged  that  State  organizations 
be  formed,  and  this  idea,  together  with  the 
demand  that  the  public  domain  should  be 
reserved  for  actual  settlers,  has  since  been 
adopted  bodily  by  the  Knights  of  Labor. 
As  may  be  seen,  the  National  Labor  Union 
was  formed  in  imitation  of  the  Trades' 
Union  Congress  of  England,  in  which  local 
bodies,  not  allowed  to  discuss  politics  in 
their  meetings,  couid  send  delefi^^tes  tn  the 
central  body,  and  there  deal  with  questions 


of  a  political  nature  and  thus  influence 
national  legislation  in  favor  of  the  work- 
ing classes.  But  the  political  portion  of 
the  work  was  the  smaller  portion,  for  mat- 
ters of  a  social  and  industrial  character 
were  dealt  with  to  a  greater  extent. 

Two  conventions  of  the  National  Labor 
Union  were  held  in  1868,  one  in  May  and 
the  other  in  September.  The  first  con- 
vened in  Pittsburgh,  and  the  principal  act 
of  that  session  was  an  alliance  to  co  operate 
with  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  and  the 
Grangers.  The  September  session  was  held 
in  New  York  City,  to  take  action  regarding 
the  general  movement  which  was  then 
going  on  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of 
the  eight  hour  rule.  In  his  address  the 
chairman  pointed  out  the  need  of  closer 
coherence  than  had  yet  been  attained  be- 
tween the  different  trades  and  callings,  and 
recommended  that  a  central  head  be  estab- 
lished, to  which  all  the  trades'  ard  labor 
unions  should  be  subordinate.  This  idea 
was  not  strictly  carried  out,  however,  and 
the  mistake  in  disregarding  it  was  subse- 
quently made  plain.  The  annual  conven- 
tion of  1869  was  held  in  Chicago  ;  that  of 
1870  in  Boston;  that  of  1871  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  that  of  1872,  which  was  the  last, 
wound  up  in  Columbus,  O.  There  it  was 
decided  to  nominate  a  ticket  for  President 
of  the  Ignited  States,  and  David  Davis,  of 
Illinois,  was  chosen  as  the  standard-bearer. 

This  drifting  into  political  action  pro- 
voked so  much  dissension  that  one  local 
organization  after  another — believing  that 
the  National  Labor  Union  had  entered  a 
field  of  operations  for  which  it  was  not 
intended — withdrew  its  support,  and  inter- 
est was  lost  in  the  central  body. 

In  the  next  year,  1873,  the  great  panic 
swept  upon  the  country  and  demolished 
the  trades'  unions.  Most  of  them  were 
built  on  a  basis  of  very  low  dues  and  had 
no  beneficial  feature  that  would  hold  the 
members  together  when  trades'  questions 
failed  to  interest  them,  and,  consequently, 
both  thp  local  unions  and  the  national  or- 
ganization went  down  in  the  crash.     The 


39 


distress  of  the  winter  of  1873-4,  and  the  ia- 
i:bility  of  organized  labor  to  stem  the  re- 
ductions of  wages  that  were  taking  place 
in  every  branch  of  industry,  induced  a 
number  of  leading  trades'  unionists  to  call 
another  "Industrial  Congress"  in  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  for  April  14,  1874,  with  the  in- 
tention of  returning  to  the  old  lines  of  the 
National  Labor  Union,  avoiding  politics, 
and  of  forming  a  federation  of  the  trades' 
and  labor  unions  of  the  entire  country. 
There  was  represented  at  this  convention  a 
secret  organization,  then  known  as  the 
"  Sovereigns  of  Industry,"  which  was  mak- 
ing great  headway  in  the  Eastern  and  Mid- 
dle States,  with  a  purpose  of  establishing 
CO  operative  stores  and  eliminating  the 
"middle  man"  from  commercial  trans- 
actions. Another  organization  represented 
was  that  known  as  the  "Industrial  Broth- 
erhood of  the  United  States,"  also  secret 
and  somewhat  of  the  character  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor. 

In  the  convention  there  was  a  .serious 
clash  between  the  champions  of  these  two 
bodies  on  the  question  of  a  permanent  or- 
ganization, some  of  the  delegates  desiring 
to  form  an  order  similar  to  the  Industrial 
Brotherhood,  and  others  favoring  the  Sov- 
ereigns of  Industry  plan.  A  platform  was 
finally  adopted,  however,  which  was  almost 
identical  in  every  respect  with  the  declara- 
tion of  principles  of  the  Knights  of  Labor, 
and  from  which  the  latter  has  copied. 

The  movement  to  form  a  permanent  in- 
dustrial congress,  nevertheless,  seemed  to 
end  with  that  session  of  the  convention, 
and  no  further  eflbrts  were  made  in  that 
direction  until  a  call  for  a  national  con- 
vention, to  be  held  at  Tyrone,  Pa.,  in  De- 
cember, 1875,  was  issued  by  a  secret  or- 
ganization, which  was  at  that  time  a 
promising  rival  of  the  Knights  of  Labor, 
entitled  the  "Junior  Sons  of '76."  The 
design  of  this  gathering  was  to  form  a  com- 
bination of  all  the  scattered  fragments  of 
the  labor  movement.  Delegates  were  in 
attendance  from  the  "Junior  Sons  of  '76," 
the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  Grangers,  open 
trades'  unions,  and  social  democratic  or- 
ganizations, as  they  were  called  at  that 
time.  Their  worthy  designs  did  not  mate- 
rialize, however,  but  were  dissipated  in 
vain  talk.  The  "  Junior  Sons  "  themselves 
were  very  short  lived.  Alter  "76"  had 
rolled  away,  no  trace  of  them  could  be 
found.  In  that  year  they  had  engaged  in 
politics  as  an  order  throughout  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  had  elected  several  members  of 
the  Legislature  on  labor  measures.  After 
having  done  that,  their  mission  seemed  to 
have  been  fulfilled  and  they  disbanded. 

inuring  the  same  period  the  Industrial 
Brotherhood,  which  was  numerically  weak, 
but  extended  through  many  sections  of  the 
country,  was  also  attempting  to  outrival 
the  Knights  of  Labor.     Another  order  of  a 


general  and  secret  character  had  sprung  up 
in  the  early  part  of  1877,  known  as  the 
"International  Labor  Union,"  having 
branches  in  seventeen  States.  But  little  or 
nothing  of  national  consequence  was  done 
by  the  trades'  and  labor  unions  until  1878, 
when  they  everywhere  began  to  re-organ- 
ize, and,  profiting  by  their  previous  fail- 
ures, laid  the  foundations  ol  local  unions 
upon  a  basis  of  high  dues,  introducing 
various  beneficial  features,  such  as  sick, 
funeral,  and  disability  benefits,  and  othel 
financial  provisions  calculated  to  hold  thf 
members  more  firmly  to  the  oiganizatiou. 
These  local  bodies  in  turn  combined  and 
formed  trades'  assemblies,  trades'  councils, 
etc.  In  these  central  bodies  Knights  of 
Labor  and  trades'  unionit-ts  were  both 
united. 

Coming  up,  however,  to  the  preliminary 
steps  that  led  ultimately  to  the  formation 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  a 
call  was  issued  conjointly  by  the  "  Knights 
of  Industry  "  and  a  .society  known  as  the 
"  Amalgamated  Labor  Union  ' — an  orishoot 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  ctnipostd  of  dis- 
aflfected  members  of  that  order — for  a  con- 
vention to  meet  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  on 
August  2,  1881.  The  Amalgamated  Labor 
Union  had  been  organized  in  1878,  and 
was  confined  principally  to  Ohio  and  Indi- 
ana, while  the  Knights  of  Industry,  with 
which  it  joined  hands,  was  confined  t(i 
Missouri  and  Illinois.  The  Terie  Haute 
convention  had  for  its  object  the  estabii-'^h- 
ment  ©f  a  new  secret  order  to  s^upplant  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  although,  on  the  face  of 
the  call,  its  object  was  stated  to  be  to  es- 
tablish a  national  labor  cong^e^.s.  There 
was  a  large  representation  of  delegates 
present  from  St.  Louis,  Cleveland,  Chicago, 
and  other  "Western  cities,  but  the  only 
Eastern  city  represented  was  Pittsburgh. 
The  trades'  union  delegates  represented  the 
largest  constituency,  but  weie  less  in  num- 
ber themselves  than  the  delegates  of  the 
other  .societies.  But,  by  the  exercise  of 
tact  and  diplomacy,  the  trades'  union  men, 
who  were  at  that  time  al-so  members  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  succest-fuJly  oppo.'-«d  the 
project  of  adding  another  new  organization 
to  the  list  of  societies  already  in  existence, 
and,  for  the  time  being,  the  friends  of  the 
proposed  secret  organization  were  defeated. 

A  call  was  published,  however,  for  asub- 
.sequentconvention.tobeheld  in  Pitt.slturgh 
on  November  19,  1881,  and  this  gathering 
proved  to  be  the  most  important  of  its  kind 
that  had  fftis  far  been  held.  The  call  for 
that  convention  was  remarkable.  It  read 
in  part : 

"  We  have  numberless  trades'  unions, 
trades'  assemblies  or  councils,  Knights  of 
Labor,  and  various  otlier  local,  national, 
and  international  lal)or  unions,  all  engaged 
in  the  noble  task  of  elevating  and  improv- 
ing the  condition  of  the  working  classvj. 


40 


But  great  as  has  been  the  work  done  by 
these  bodies,  there  is  vastly  more  that  can 
be  done  by  a  combination  of  all  thtse  or- 
ginizatious  in  a  federation  of  trades'  and 
liibor  unions." 

Iq  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  that  call, 
the  conveniiou  was  organized  at  the  date 
designated,  with  John  Jarrett,  at  that  time 
president  of  the  Amalgamated  Association 
of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  in  the  chair. 
One  hundred  and  seven  delegates  were 
present,  representing  262,000  workingmen, 
and  a  permanent  organization  was  effected 
styled  the  "Federation  of  Organized 
Trades'  and  Labor  Unions  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,"  and  a  congressional 
committee,  like  that  which  the  Knights  of 
Laborsubsequently  created,  was  appointed, 
consisting  of  Richard  Powers,  of  the  Sea- 
man's Union,  of  Chicago ;  William  H. 
Foster,  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  of  Cincinnati ;  Samuel  Gompers, 
of  the  International  Cigar  Makers'  Union, 
of  New  York  ;  C.  F.  Burgman,  of  the  Tai- 
lors' International  Union,  of  San  Francisco, 
and  A.  C.  Kankin,  of  the  Knights  of  Labor 
Iron  Moulders,  of  Pittsburgh.  Knights  of 
Labor  assemblies  and  trades'  unions  were 
equally  represented,  and  it  was  thoroughly 
understood  that  the  trades'  unionists  should 
preserve  their  form  of  organization  and  the 
Knights  of  Labor  should  maintain  theirs, 
and  that  the  two  should  work  hand  in  hand 
for  the  thorough  amalgamation  of  the 
working  classes  under  one  of  these  two 
heads,  and  that  they  should  use  every 
legitimate  means  to  offset  any  movement 
designed  to  create  any  more  fragments  or 
divisions  in  the  labor  army. 

A  financial  system  was  established  and 
thirteen  measures  were  adopted  of  a  politi- 
cal character.  They  favored  the  compul- 
sory education  of  children,  the  aboliti<  n  of 
child  labor,  the  passage  of  uniform  appren- 
tice laws,  the  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour 
rule,  the  restriction  of  contract  prison  labor, 
and  the  abandonment  of  the  store  order 
system.  They  advocated,  also,  a  first  lien 
for  labor  done,  the  repeal  of  the  conspiracy 
laws  against  organized  labor,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  bureau  of  labor  statistics,  the 
continuance  of  the  protective  tariff  for 
American  indu.stry,  the  enactment  of  a 
national  law  to  prevent  the  importation  of 
foreign  labor  under  contract,  and  urged 
that  organized  labor  should  have  represen- 
tation in  all  law-making  bodies,  in  order  to 
secure  beneficial  legislation.  Supplemen- 
tary resolutions  were  also  passed,  setting 
forth  the  necessity  of  legislation  securing 
restrictions  to  Chinese  labor,  the  licensing 
of  stationary  engineers,  governmental  in- 
spection of  factories  and  workshops,  the 
sanitary  supervision  of  food  and  wells,  and 
an  employers'  liability  law.  Many,  if  not 
"11,  of  these  ideas  are  now  taken  up  and 
presented  by  the  Knights  of  Labor. 


At  this  same  session  it  was  oecided  to 
choose  a  committee  of  three  and  invite  the 
co-operation  of  a  committee  of  three  from 
the  Parliamentary  Committee  of  the  Trades' 
Union  Congress  of  Great  Britain,  and  of  a 
committee  of  three  from  the  Syndical 
Chambers  of  Frame,  these  nine  to  form  a 
labor  commission,  whose  duty  it  should  be 
to  proceed  to  Ireland,  hear  evidence  and 
acquaint  themselves  with  the  causes  of 
discontent  in  that  ccuntiy  ;  thetce  to  pro- 
ceed to  London  and  Paris,  make  investiga- 
tions of  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  there,and  publish  their  report.  But, 
from  want  of  action  on  the  part  of  the 
trades'  unions  of  England,  the  project  fell 
through. 

In  the  interim  until  the  next  convention 
the  Legislative  Committee  of  the  Federation 
set  to  work  and  secured  several  hearicgs 
before  congressional  committees  of  the 
House  and  Senate,  which  resulted  in  the 
appointment  of  a  special  Senate  Commit- 
tee, of  which  Senator  H.  W.  Blair,  of  Kew 
Hampshire,  was  chairiL'an,  to  make  a  thor- 
ough investigation  of  the  labor  question. 
Repeated  bearings  were  had  belore  this 
committee  in  favor  ot  an  enforcement  of 
the  eight  hour  law  auvl  the  erection  of  a 
national  bureau  of  labor  statistics,  and  in 
opposition  io  a  bill  introduced  by  Congress- 
man Towusend,  of  Cleveland,  to  make  the 
lake  seamen,  if  they  should  ever  strike  or 
use  their  ii  fluence  upon  others  during  a 
strike,  gu\lty  in  the  eyfs  of  the  law  of 
mutiny  at  sea,  and  liable  to  punishment 
accordingly.  So  strong  was  the  opposition 
to  this  bill  that  it  was  shortly  afterward 
buried  in  the  committee. 

On  all  the  various  subjects  noted  above,- 
bills  were  introduced  by  the  Federation 
and  placed  in  the  hands  (f  prominent 
Congressmen  for  enactment.  From  the 
entire  number  the  passage  of  a  law  requir- 
ing the  formation  of  a  national  bureau  of 
labor  statistics.and  of  a  law  preventing  the 
importation  of  contract  labor,  was  finally 
secured  in  1883 — more  than  any  labor  or- 
ganization had  yet  accomplished. 

The  second  convention  of  the  Federation 
was  held  in  Cleveland,  O.,  on  November 
21,  1882,  when  Samuel  Gompers  was 
elected  permanent  president,  and  William 
H.  Foster,  subsequently  of  Philadelphia, 
permanent  secretary.  Fearing  that  some 
disaster  might  overtake  this  organization,  as 
had  been  the  fate  of  its  predecessors,  a 
manifesto  was  issued  to  the  subordinate 
unions,  discountenancing  political  action, 
on  the  ground  that  the  Federation  had 
been  organized  as  a  purely  industrial  body. 
The  manifesto  set  forth  further,  in  admi- 
rable language : 

"We  favor  this  Federation  because  it  is 
the  most  natural  and  assimilative  form 
of  bringing  the  trades'  and  labor  unions 
together.     It  preserves  the  industrial  an- 


41 


tonomy  and  distinctive  character  of  each 
trade  and  labor  union,  and,  without  doing 
violence  to  their  faith  or  traditions,  blends 
them  all  in  one  harmonious  whole — a  '  fed- 
eration of  trades'  and  labor  unions.'  Such 
a  body  looks  to  the  organization  of  the 
working  classes  as  workers,  and  not  as 
'soldiers'  (in  the  present  deprecatory  sense) 
or  politicans.  It  makes  the  qualities  of  a 
man  as  a  worker  the  only  tes^  of  fitness,  and 
sets  up  no  polif.cal  or  religious  test  of 
membership.  It  strives  for  the  unification 
of  all  labor,  not  by  straining  at  an  enforced 
union  of  diverse  thought  and  widely  sepa- 
rated methods,  not  by  prescribing  a  uniform 
plan  of  organization,  regardless  of  their 
experience  or  interests,  not  by  antago- 
nizing or  destroying  existing  organizations, 
but  by  perserving  all  that  is  integral  or 
good  in  them  and  by  widening  their  scope 
so  that  each,  without  destroying  their  in- 
dividual character,  may  act  together  in  all 
that  concerns  them.  The  open  trades 
unions,  national  and  international,  can 
and  ought  to  work  side  by  side  with  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  and  this  would  be  the  case 
were  it  not  for  men  either  over-zealous  or 
ambitious,  who  busy  themselves  in  attempt- 
ing the  destruction  of  existing  unions  to 
serve  their  own  whims  and  mad  iconoclasm. 
ThLs  should  cease  and  each  should  under- 
stand its  proper  place  and  work  in  that 
sphere,  and  if  they  desire  to  come  under 
one  head  or  afiiliate  their  affairs,  then  let  all 
trades'  and  labor  societies,  secret  or  public, 
be  represented  in  the  Federation  of  Trades' 
and  Labor  Unions." 

As  will  be  observed  from  reading  this 
manifesto,  the  friction  between  the  Federa- 
tion and  the  Knights  of  Labor  had  already 
become  serious  and  irritating.  The  next 
convention,  that  of  1883,  was  held  in  New 
York,  on  August  21.  Samuel  Gompers, 
was  re-elected  president,  and  Frank  K. 
Foster,  of  Boston,  was  chosen  secretary, 
and  arbitration  was  favored  instead  of 
strikes.  The  eight-hour  rule  was  insisted 
upon  and  laws  were  demanded  to  limit  the 
dividends  of  corporations  and  to  introduce 
governmental  telegraph  systems.  A  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  wait  on  the  na- 
tional conventions  of  both  the  Republican 
and  Democratic  parties  the  following  year, 
and  secure  the  insertion  of  planks  in  their 
respective  platforms  favorable  to  the 
interests  of  the  labor  movement ;  and  the 
Legislative  Committee  was  instructed  to 
present  a  bill  to  Congress  creating  a 
national  Department  of  Industry  or  Labor. 
This  project  also,  like  many  of  those  fore- 
going, now  strenuously  advocated  by  the 
Knights  of  Labor  as  an  idea  of  their  own. 
Before  the  convention  adjourned  another 
committee  was  appointed  to  confer  with 
the  Knights  of  Labor  and  other  kindred 
organizations  with  a  view  to  securing  a 
thorough    unification    and    consolidation. 


Correspondence  was  subsequently  opened 
with  the  Knights  of  Labor  on  the  subject, 
but,  as    is  known,    the  proposition   was  • 
repulsed. 

The  next  convention  was  held  in  Chicago 
on  October  7,  1884.  Steps  were  taken  for 
a  universal  agitation  in  behalf  of  the  eight- 
hour  system,  and  the  1st  of  May,  1886,  was 
fixed  upon  as  the  date  for  the  general  in- 
auguration of  the  plan.  The  question  was 
submitted  to  each  local  organization  re- 
represented  for  action,  those.voting  in  favor 
of  it  to  be  bound  by  it  and  those  voting  in 
opposition  to  pledge  themselves  to  sustain 
the  other  pioneers  in  the  movement. 
Among  the  organizations  that  decided  to 
inaugurate  the  system  were  the  cigar 
makers,  the  furniture  workers,  the  Ger- 
man printers,  and  the  carpenters.  As  will 
be  remembered,  the  cigar  makers  and  the 
German  printers  succeeded,  and  the  fur- 
niture workers  compromised  on  nine  hours, 
while  the  carpenters  succeeded  in  establish- 
ing eight  hours  in  seven  cities  and  com- 
promised on  nine  hours  in  eighty-four 
cities.  The  agitation  at  that  time  for  the 
introduction  of  the  eight-hour  work-day 
was  very  popular  among  the  trades  of 
New  York,  Boston,  Cincinnati,  Chicago, 
St.  Louis,  Washington,  and  Baltimore. 

The  Anarchists,  members  of  the  Interna- 
tional Workingmen's  party,  who  had 
hitherto  violently  opposed  the  eight-hour 
movement  and  condemned  it  on  every 
occasion,  now  seized  upon  it  as  an  in- 
strument, it  is  believed,  to  further  their 
propaganda,  and  the  mildest  of  their 
agitators  became  prominent  in  their  attend- 
ance at  eight-hour  meetings.  The  throwing 
of  the  bombs  at  the  Haymarket  meeting  in 
Chicago  on  May  5,  188G,  however,  had  a 
very  depressing  effect  on  the  eight-hour 
movement,  as  President  Samuel  Gompers 
declared  to  Governor  Oglesby,  inasmuch 
as  the  trade-union  element  in  general  did 
not  wish  to  be  associated  or  connected  in 
the  popular  mind  with  the  Anarchists  or 
their  methods,  and,  consequently,  the 
measure  has  not  been  pressed  since. 

At  the  convention  of  1885,  held  in  Wash- 
ington on  December  8.  attention  was  prin- 
cipally directed  to  strengthening  the  na- 
tional organization,  and  preparing  for  the 
eight-hour  work-day.  The  secretary  re- 
ported that  he  had  communicated  with  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  inviting  its  co-operation 
with  the  Federation  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  system,  but  that  the  General  A8.«embly 
at  Hamilton,  Ont. ,  had  adjourned  without 
taking  any  action  or  expressing  any  sym- 
pathy for  the  movement. 

The  convention  of  1886  was  originally 
called  to  meet  in  St.  Louis  in  tbe  latter 
part  of  the  year,  but  the  stirring  events 
incident  to  the  eight-hour  strikes,  and  the 
difficulties  existing  wikh  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  led  to  the  memorable  conference  of 


42 


the  officers  of  the  trades'  unions  at  Donald- 
son's Hall,  in  this  city,  on  May  18,  -where 
defensive  measures  were  outlined  to  pro- 
tect the  trades'  unions  and  to  secure  har- 
mony vrith  the  Knights  of  Labor.  A  com- 
mittee attended  the  special  session  of  the 
Knights'  General  Assembly,  at  Cleveland, 
on  May  2U,  and  after  several  days"  wait- 
ing, marked  by  long  and  animated  discus- 
sions in  the  General  Assembly  on  trade- 
union  issues,  no  definite  assurances  were 
obtained,  and  no  action  was  taken.  The 
trades'  union  committee  a  second  time  met 
the  Knights  of  Labor  Executive  Board,  at 
the  Bingham  House,  in  this  city,  on  Sep- 
tember 26,  and  secured  promises  that  defi- 
nite action  would  be  taken  at  the  Richmond 
General  Assembly,  which  wouJd  lead  to 
harmony  between  the  two  organizatiocs. 

The  trades  unions  objected  to  the  admis- 
sion to  the  Knights  ot  Labor  of  members 
who  had  been  suspended,  expelled,  or  re- 
jected for  cause  by  their  own  orga.nizaiion ; 
they  opposed  the  formation  of  Knights  of 
Labor  assemblies  in  trades  already  thor- 
oughyl  organized  in  tradeS;  unions,  and 
complained  of  the  use  of  Knights  of  Labor 
trade-marks  or  labels,  in  competition  with 
their  own  labels,  notably  so  in  the  case  of 
the  Cigar- Makers'  International  Union.  At 
the  Richmond  General  Assembly,  the  trades' 
union  chiefs  presented  a  mass  of  griev- 
ances, showing  where  their  local  unions 
had  been  tampered  with  by  Knights  of  La- 
bor organizers,  where  movements  had  been 
made  to  disrupt  them,  and  where,  in  cases 
where  such  disruption  could  not  be  effected, 
antagonistic  organizations  were  formed  by 
the  Knights.  The  General  Assembly,  how- 
ever, instead  of  removing  these  alleged 
evils  or  giving  satisfactory  redress  to  the 
trades'  union  element,  administered  to  the 
Federation  a  slap  in  the  face,  as  the  latter 
understood  it,  by  passing  a  resolution  com- 
pelling the  members  of  Cigar  Makers'  In- 
ternational Union  connected  with  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  to  withdraw  from  the 
order. 

The  call  for  the  St.  Louis  Convention  of 
the  Federation  was  then  abrogated,  and  a 
circular  was  issued  designating  Columbus, 
Ohio,  as  the  place  of  meeting  on  December 
8.  At  the  same  time  all  organizations  not 
already  affiliated  with  the  Federation,  were 
urged  to  attend  a  trades'  union  convention 
to  be  held  in  the  same  place  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  After  four  days'  joint  sessions  of 
the  bodies,  the  old  Federation  of  trades'  and 
labor  unions  was  dissolved,  and  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor — the  result  of 
long  thought,  mature  brains,  and  arduous 
toil — was  born  to  the  world. 

Twenty-five  national  organizations  were 


Wended  in  it,  with  an  aggregate  meiu'^ei- 
ship  of  316,469  workingmen.  A  plan  of 
permanent  organization  was  adopted,  very 
simple  in  its  details,  and  an  executive 
council  of  five  members  and  chief  officers 
were  elected.  Resolutions  were  passed  fa- 
voring the  early  adoption  of  the  eight-hour 
rule,  demanding  of  Congress  the  passage  of 
a  compulsory  indenture  law,  and  condemn- 
ing the  Pinkertons'  Preventive  Patrol,  and 
the  Coal  and  Iron  Police.  After  much  de- 
liberation, a  constitution  was  agreed  upon, 
in  which  the  main  objects  of  the  great  or- 
ganization were  stated  to  be  "the  encour- 
agement of  formation  of  local  unions,  and 
the  closer  federation  of  sucn  societies, 
through  central  trade  and  labor  unions  in 
every  city,  with  the  further  combination  of 
these  bodies  into  State,  territorial,  and 
provincial  organizations,  to  secure  Ifgisla- 
tion  in  the  interests  of  the  working  masses; 
the  establishment  of  national  and  inter- 
national trades'  unions,  based  upon  a  strict 
recognition  of  the  autonomy  of  e;  ch  trade, 
and  the  promotion  and  advancement  or 
such  bodies;  and  the  aiding  and  encour- 
agement of  the  labor  press  of  America." 

The  revenue  of  the  Federation  is  de- 
rived from  a  per  capita  tax  of  one-third 
of  a  cent  per  month  for  each  member  in 
good  standing. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Federation  is  es- 
sentially democratic  in  principle,  and  that, 
unlike  its  rival,  the  Knights  of  Labor,  its 
affairs  are  conducted  in  the  most  frugal 
and  economical  manner  possible.  The 
second  session  was  held  in  Baltimore,  De- 
cember 13,  1887. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  nu- 
merically the  strongest  labor  organization 
in  the  world. 

Within  the  period  during  which  the 
Knights  have  been  retrograding,  as  far  as 
numbers  are  concerned,  the  American  Fed- 
eration, since  its  formation  at  Columbus, 
Ohio,  on  December  8,  1886,  has  been  noise- 
lessly and  rapidly  gaining  strength  and 
importance. 

Since  its  first  inception,  following  the 
traditions  of  the  open  trades'  unions,  it  has 
not  affected  secrecy,  and  at  the  same  time 
it  has  not  courted  notoriety.  Its  component 
parts,  previously  organized  in  different 
form,  have  given  to  the  world  nearly  all  the 
ideas  that  have  since  been  found  useful  or 
valuable  in  other  labor  organizations,  and 
the  brilliant  success  which  has  attended  this 
the  first  years  of  its  existence,  bears  portent 
of  great  achievement  in  the  future.  Ita 
roster  of  national  and  international  trades' 
unions  contains  such  influential  and  diverse 
organizations  as  these ; 


National  and  International  Unions. 


Actors'  National  Protective  Union.  Lew 
Morton,    S    Union    Square,    New    Yorlj, 

N.  y. 

Allied  Metal  Mechanics,  International  As- 
sociation of.  George  B.  Buchanan,  421 
Valentine  Building,  Toledo,   O. 

B 

Bakers'  and  Confectioners'  International, 
Journeymen.  F.  H.  Harzbecker,  Room 
39,  Harrington  Building,  236  Superior 
street,    Cleveland,    O. 

Barbers'  International  Union,  Journeymen. 
W.  E.  Klapetsky,  Room  407,  Electric 
Building,   Cleveland,   O. 

Blacksmiths'  International  Brotherhood  of. 
Robert  B.  Kerr,  New  Mail  Building, 
Moline,   111. 

Blast  Furnace  Workers'  and  Smelters' 
of  America,  National  Association  of. 
Ed.  J.   Mullen,   Lowellville,   O. 

Boiler  Makers'  and  Iron  Ship  Builders, 
Brotherhood  of.  W.  J.  Gilthorpe,  Room 
406,  Portsmouth  Building,  Kansas  City, 
Kans. 

Bookbinders,  International  Brotherhood  of. 
James  W.  Dougherty,  216  East  Seventy- 
sixth  street.  New  York,   N.  Y. 

Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union.  Horace  M. 
Eaton,  434  Albany  Building,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Brewery  Workers,  National  Union  of 
United.  Julius  Zorn,  Odd  Fellows' 
Temple,  corner  Seventh  and  Elm 
streets,   Cincinnati,   O. 

Brick.  Tile  and  Terra  Cotta  Workers'  Al- 
liance, International.  George  Hodge, 
Blue  Island,   111. 

Broom  Makers'  Union,  International.  W. 
R.  Boyer,  3S7  South  Prairie  street, 
Galesburg,  111. 


Carpenters  and  Joiners  of  America,  United 
Brotherhood  of.  Frank  Duffy,  Rooms 
212-215  Lippincott  Building,  46  North 
Twelfth  street,   Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Carpenters  and  Joiners,  Amalgamated  So- 
ciety of.  Thomas  Atkinson.  332  EJast 
Ninety-third  street.  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Carriage  and  Wagon  Makers,  International. 
C.  A.  Peterson,  54  Aiken  avenue,  Cleve- 
land, O. 

Carvers'  Association  of  North  America,  In- 
ternational Wood.  George  H.  Thobe, 
513  Russel  avenue,    Covington,   Ky. 

Car  Workers.  International  Association  of. 
A.  D.  Wheeler,  644  Prudential  Build- 
ing,  Buffalo,   N.  y. 

Chainmakers'  National  Union  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  Russell  L.  Mohler, 
609  Genesee  street,   Trenton,   N.   J. 

CIgarmakers'  International  UniOTi  of 
America.  George  W.  Perkins,  Room 
820,  Monon  Block,  320  Dearborn  street, 
Chicago,   111. 

Clerks'  International  Protective  Associa- 
tion.  Retail.  Max  Morris,  Box  1441, 
Denver,  Colo. 

Coopers'     International     Union     of     North 

America.  James  A.  Cabl(»,  542  Elizabeth 
avenue,   Kansas  City,   Kans. 

Coremakers'  International  Union.  M.  P. 
Flaherty,  101  Baxter  street.  South  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Curtain  Operatives  of  America,  Amalga- 
mated Lace.  J.  Robinson,  3413  Bodinc 
Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


D 

Drivers'  International  Union.  Team. 
George  Innis,  Room  12.  29  Monroe 
avenue.  West,  Detroit,   Mich. 


Electrical  Workers  of  America,  Interna- 
tional Brotherhood  of.  H.  W.  Sher- 
man, Corcoran  Building,  Washington. 
D.  C. 

Engineers,  National  Brotherhood  of  Coal 
Hoisting.  T.  E.  Jenkins,  Room  3, 
Goldsmith  Building,    Danville,   111. 

Engineers,  International  Union  of  Steam. 
R.  A.  McKee,  224  Masonic  Temple, 
Peoria,  111. 

Engineers,  Amalgamated  Societv  of.  An- 
drew McEwan,  137  E.  "Thirteenth 
street,   New   York,   N.   Y. 

Engravers.  International  Association  of 
Watch  Case.  William  C.  Haubold,  71 
Sands  street,   Brtoklyn,  N.   Y. 


Firemen,  International  Brotherhood  of 
Stationary.  C.  L.  Shamp,  1169  Fulton 
street,  Chicago,  111. 

Fitters  and  Helpers,  National  Association 
of  Steam  and  Hot  Water.  W.  L.  On- 
stott.  2S34  Wallace  street,  Chicago,  111. 

G 

Garment     Workers     of     America.     United. 

Henry    White,     Rooms    116-117,     Bible 

House,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Garment    Workers'      Union,     International 

Ladies.     Bernard  Brafif,  S  First  avenue. 

New  York,   N.  Y. 
Glass   Bottle    Blowers'    Association    of   the 

United    States   and     Canada.       William 

Launer,     Rooms     930-931      Witherspoon 

Building,    Juniper  and   Walnut  streets, 

Philadelphia,   Pa. 
Glass     Workers'     Union,     American     Flint. 

John    L.    Dobbins.     Room    316,    Bissell 

Block,    Pittsburg,   Pa. 
Glass    Workers,    International    Association 

Amalgamated.      William    Figolah,    3257 

Union  avenue,   Chicago,   111. 
Granite    Cutters'    National    Union.      James 

Duncan,    46-48   New  England    Building, 

200  Summer  street,  Boston.  Mass. 
Grinders'  National  Union.  Table  Knifo.     A. 

J.    Russell.    163   Ward    street,    Walling- 

ford.  Conn. 

H 

Hatters  of  North  America,  United.  John 
Phillips,  797  Bedford  avenue,  Brooklvn, 
N.  Y. 

Horse-Shoers  of  United  States  and  Canada, 
International  Union  of  Journeymen. 
Roady  Kenchan,  1548  Wazee  street, 
Denver,  Colo. 

Hotel  and  Restaurant  Employes'  Tnterna- 
tional  Alllanoe  and  Bartender.^'  Inter- 
national League  of  America.  Jen-  L. 
Sullivan,  Fisher  Block,  621  Walnut 
street.  Cincinnati,  O. 

I 

Iron,  Steel  and  Tin  Workers.  Amnlgnmated 
Association  of.  John  Williams,  Bissell 
Block,  407  Seventh  avenue,  Plttsbnrjf, 
Pa. 


Jewolrv  Workers'  Union  of  Aniorlcn.  Inter- 
national. Charles  Ilerwlg,  682  E.  HVJil 
street,  New  York,  N.  Y. 


44 


Latbors.  IiUcinational  Union  of  Wood, 
Wire  and  Metal.  A.  F.  Leibig,  182 
Abbev  street,    Cleveland,   O. 

Laundrv  "  Workers'  International  Union, 
Shirt,  Waist  and.  Charles  E.  Nordeck, 
Lock  Box  10,  Station  1,  Troy,   N.  "5. 

Leather  Workers  on  Horse  Goods.  United 
Brotherhood  of.  Chas.  L.  Conine.  43.} 
Gibralter  Building,   Kansas  City,   Mo. 

Leather  Workers'  Union  of  America,  Amal- 
gamated. Fred  Cahill,  211  South 
Eleventh  street,   Clean,   N.   Y. 

Longshoremen's  Association.  International. 
Henry  C.  Barter,  Colonial  Building, 
Detroit,   Mich. 

M 

Machinists'     International    Association     of. 

George  Preston.  Rooms  82-85,   Corcoran 

Building.   Washington,   D.   C. 
Meat    Cutters    and    Butcher     Workmen     of 

North   America.   Amalgamated.     Homer 

D    Call.  Lock  Box  317.  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Metal' Polishers.  Buffens.  Platers  and  Brass 

Workers'     Union    of     North     America. 

James  J.  CuUen.  2.5  Third  avenue.  Sta- 
tion D,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Metal    Workers'    International    Association, 

Amalgamated    Sheet.      John    E.     Bray, 

313  Nelson  Building.   Kansas  City.   Mo. 
Metal       Workers'       International        Union. 

United.      O.    O.    Sherman,     264     Ogden 

avenue,   Chicago,  111. 
Mine  Workers  of  America.  United.  William 

B.    Wilson.     1101    Stevenson    Building, 

Indianapolis,   Ind. 
Mine      Workers'      Progressive      Union      of 

America,      Northern       Mineral.         Matt 

Wasley,  Ishpeniing,  *Iieh. 
Molder.s'    TTnion    of    North    America,    Iron. 

E.   J.   Denney,   433  Walnut  street,    Cin- 
cinnati,  O. 
Musicians,  American  Federation  of.     Owen 

Miller     700    Market    street,    St.    Louis, 

Mo. 

O 

Oil  and  Gas  Well  Workers,  International 
Brotherhood  of.  Jay  H.  Mullen,  Bow- 
ling Green,   O. 


Painters,  Decorators  and  Paperhangers  of 
America,  Brotherhood  of.  M.  P.  Car- 
rick.  Drawer  199,  Lafayette,  Ind. 

Paper  Makers  of  America,  United  Brother- 
hood of.  P.  J.  Ackerman,  56a  Main 
street,   Watertown,  N.   Y. 

Pattern  Makers'  League  of  North  America. 
John  F.  McBride,  25  Third  avenue, 
New  Y'ork,  N.  Y. 

Paving  Cutters'  T^nion  of  the  Unted  States 
of  America.  J.  H.  Patterson,  Llthonia, 
Ga. 

Piano  and  Organ  Workers,  International 
Union  of  America.  Frank  Helle,  1350 
South  42d  Court,  Chicago,  111. 

Plumbers.  Gas  Fitters.  Steam  Fitters  and 
Steam  Fitters'  Helpers.  United  Asso- 
ciation of.  L.  W.  Tilden,  518  Odgen 
Building.  Chicago,  111. 

Plate  Printers'  Union  of  North  America, 
International.  Steel  and  Copper.  T.  L. 
Mahan,  12  LeRoy  street,  Dorchester, 
Mass. 

Powder  and  High  Explosive  Workers  of 
America.  United.  Jas.  G.  McCrindle, 
Gracedale.  Pa. 

Potters.  National  Brotherhood  of  Operative. 
T.  J.  Duffy,  Box  50,  East  Liverpool.  O. 


I'rinling  I'ressmen's  Union,  Internatioaial. 
\\'.  .1.  Webb.  liM)7  Putnam  avenue, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

R 

Railway  Employes  of  America,  Amalga- 
mated Associatfon  of  Street.  W.  D. 
Mahon,  45  Hodges  Block,  Detroit, 
Mich. 

Railroad  Telegraphers,  Order  of.  L.  W. 
Quick,   St.   Louis,   Mo, 

Railway  Trackmen,  Brotherhood  of.  John 
T.  Wilson,  303  Benolst  Buildi'ng,  St. 
Louis,    Mo. 


Seamen's  Union,  International.  William  H. 
Frazier,  li/L-a  Lewis  street,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Spinners'  Association,  Cotton  Mule. 
Thomas  O'Donnell,  Box  203,  Fall  River, 
Mass. 

Stage  Employes'  National  Alliance,  Thea- 
trical. Lee  M.  Hart,  care  of  Bartl's 
Hotel,  State  and  Harrison  streets, 
Chicago,  111. 

Stereotypers  and  Electrotypers  Union  of 
North  America,  International.  Geo. 
W.  Williams,  534  Warren  street,  Bos- 
ton,  Mass. 

Stove  Mounters'  International  Union.  J. 
H.  Kaefer,  166  Concord  avenue,  De- 
troit, Mich. 


Tailors'  Union  of  America,  Journeymen. 
•Tohn  B.  Lennon,  Box  597,  Bloomington, 
111. 

Textile  Workers  of  America,  United.  Al- 
bert    Hibbert,     Box    713    Fall    Riven 

,        Mas.s. 

Tile  Layers  and  Helpers'  Union,  Interna- 
tional Mosaic  and  Encaustic.  Jas.  P. 
Revnolds,  108  Corry  street,  Allegheny, 
Pa. 

Tin  Plate  Workers'  Protective  Association 
of  America,  International.  Charles  B. 
Lawyer,  Rooms  20-21,  Reilly  Block, 
Wheeling,    W.   Va. 

Tobacco  Workers'  Unionv  International.  E. 
Lewis  Evans.  Room  56,  American  Na- 
tional Bank  Building,  Third  and  Main 
streets,   Louisville,   Ky. 

Trunk  and  Bag  Workers'  Union.  Interna- 
tional. Joseph  H.  Schickel.  1313  Chou- 
teau avenue,   St.   Louis,   Mo. 

Typographical  Union,  International.  J.  W. 
Bramwood,  Room  8,  DeSioto  Block,  In- 
dianapolis, Ind. 

U 

Upholsterers'  Union  of  North  America,  In- 
ternational. Ant»n  J.  Engel,  28  Green- 
wood Terrace,   Chicago,  111. 

W 

watch  Case  Makers.   International.     Chris. 

J.     Turner,     18    Steuben     street,     East 

Orange,    N.   J. 
Weavers'    Amalgamated   Association,    Elas- 
tic   Goring.      Thomas   Pollard,    Box   46, 

Easthampton,   Mass. 
Weavers'   Protective  Association,   American 

Wire.      Fred    W.    Ashworth,    Belleville, 

N.  J. 
Wood     Workers'     International     Union     of 

America.     Amalgamated.       Thomas     I. 

Kidd,      616-617      Garden      City      Block, 

Chicago,   111. 


L-KBOR  OTuiNin:  i^iNcer. 


American  Federation  of   Labor. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


To  all  'Wage-Workers  of  America — Greeting  : 

It  is  now  generally  admitted  by  all  really  educated  and  honest  men  that  a  thorough  organization 
of  the  entire  working  class,  to  render  employment  and  the  means  of  subsistence  less  precarious,  by 
securing  an  equitable  ?  hare  of  the  fruits  of  tneir  toil,  is  the  most  vital  necessity  of  the  present  day. 

To  meet  tnis  u  gmt  necessity,  and  to  achieve  this  most  dtsirable  result,  effort>  have  been  made, 
too  numeious  to  specify,  and  too  divergent  to  admit  of  more  than  the  most  general  classification. 
Suffice  It  to  say,  that  those  attempts  at  organization  which  admitted  to  membership  the  largest 
proportion  of  others  than  wage-workers  were  those  which  went  the  most  speedily  to  the  limbo  of 
movements  that  won't  move;  while  of  the  surviving  experiments  those  which  started  with  the 
most  elaborate  and  exhaustive  platforms  of  abstract  principles  were  those  which  got  the  soonest 
into  fatal  complications,  and  soonest  became  exhausted. 

In  the  fact  of  so  many  disastrous  failures  to  supply  the  undoubtedly  e.xisting  popular  demand 
for  a  practicHl  mesns  of  solving  the  great  problem,  the  question  naturally  sugge^ts  itself  to  many  : 
"  Which  is  th'i  best  form  of  organization  for  the  people,  the  wor^  ers  ?" 

We  unhesitatingly  answer:  "  The  organization  of  the  working  people,  by  the  working  people, 
for  the  working  people-  that  is  the  Trade  Unions." 

The  Trade  r  nions  are  the  natural  growth  of  natural  laws,  and  from  the  very  nature  of  their 
being  have  stood  the  test  of  time  aud  experience.  The  development  of  the  Trade  Union-,  regarded 
both  from  the  standpoint  of  numerical  expansion  and  that  of  practical  working,  has  been  ma'- 
velously_  rapid.  The  Trade  Unions  have  demonstrated  their  ability  to  cope  with  every  emergency — 
economic  or  political — as  it  arises. 

It  is  true  that  single  Trade  Unions  have  been  often  beaten  in  pitched  battles  against  superior 
forces  of  united  capital,  but  such  defeats  are  by  no  means  disastrous  ;  on  the  contrary,  thev  are 
useful  in  calling  the  attention  of  the  workers  to  the  necessity  of  thorough  organization,  of  the 
inevitable  obligation  (f  bringing  the  yet  unorganized  workers  into  the  Union,  of  uniting  the 
hitherto  disconnected  Local  Unions  into  National  Unions,  and  of  effecting  a  yft  higher  unity  by 
the  affiliation  of  all  National  and  International  Unions  in  one  grand  federation,  in  which  each  and 
all  trade  organ izitions  would  be  as  distinct  as  the  billows,  yet  one  as  the  sea. 

In  the  work  of  trie  organization  of  labor,  the  most  energetic,  wisest  and  devoted  of  us,  when 
working  individually,  cannot  hope  to  be  successful,  but  by  combining  our  ffforts  all  mav.  And 
the  combined  action  of  all  the  Ur  ions  when  exerted  in  favor  of  any  one  Union  will  certainly  be 
more  efficacious  than  the  action  of  anv  one  Union,  no  matter  how  powerful  it  may  be,  if  exerted, 
in  favor  of  an  unorganized,  or  a  partially  organized  mass. 

We  assert  that  it  is  the  duty,  as  it  is  also  the  plain  interest,  of  all  working  people  to  organize  as 
such,  meet  in  council,  and  take  practical  steps  to  effect  the  unity  of  the  working  class,  as  an 
indispensable  preliminary  to  any  successful  attempt  to  eliminate  the  evils  of  whii  h  we,  as  a  class 
so  bitierly  and  justly  complain.  That  this  much  desired  unity  has  never  been  achieved  is  owirg  in 
a  great  measure  to  the  non-recognition  of  the  autonomy,  or  the  tight  of  self-government,  of  the 
several  trades.  The  American  Federation  <  f  Labor,  however,  avoids  the  latal  reck  on  wliich 
previous  organizations,  having  similar  aims,  have  split,  by  simply  keepingin  view  this  fundamental 
principle  as  a  landmark,  which  none  but  the  most  infatuated  would  have  ever  lost  sight  of. 

The  rapid  and  steady  growth  of  the  American  Federatio  i  of  Labor,  arising  from  the  affiliation 
of  previously  isolated,  together  with  newly  formed,  National  Unions;  the  establishment  of  Local 
Unions  of  various  trades  and  callings  where  none  before  existed;  the  .spontaneous  formation  of 
Federal  Labor  Unions,  composed  of  wage-workers  following  various  trares  in  places  where  there 
are  too  few  persons  employed  at  anv  particular  one  to  allow  the  formation  of  Local  Unions  of  those 
trades,  thus  furnishing  valuable  bodies  of  auxiliaries  and  recruits  to  existing  Unions  upon  change 
of  abod^,  this  steady  growth  is  gratifying  evidence  of  the  appreciation  of  the  toilers  of  ihis  broad 
land  of  a  fo^m  of  general  organization  in  harmony  w^ith  their  most  cherished  traditions,  and  in 
which  each  trade  enjoys  the  mo-t  perfect  Iberty  while  securing  the  fullest  advantages  of  ui.  iicd 
action. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  you  will  permit  us  to  express  our  acknowledgement  of  the  very 
moderat"  amuuut  of  governing  which  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  those  who  have  the  honor  to  addres« 
you.  While  much  of  this  good  fortune  mu-t  be  attributed  to  the  nature  of  the  fedeial  form  of  our 
organization,  our  task  has  been  immeasurably  lightened  by  the  assistance  of  a  body  of  organizers, 
who,  without  hope  of  rew  ird,  except  the  con.sciousness  of  performing  a  sacred  duty  to  their  feilow 
workmen,  have  carried  the  iiropaganda  of  trade  unionism  into  the  remot^'St  parts  of  the  Co"tinent. 
Much  of  our  burden  has  bren  also  eased  by  the  generous  co-operation  of  the  Kxecutives  of  National 
and  Intern  tional  Unions,  wno  have  acted  from  a  conviction  that  within  the  lines  of  the  Pederotion 
will  be  foueht  to  the  bitter  end  the  fast-coming  grand  struggle,  involving  the  perpetuation  of  the 
civilization  we  have  so  laboriously  evolved.  Deeply  grnteful  as  we  are  for  your  fraternal  support, 
we  should  be  negligent  of  the  duty  we  owe  to  each  and  all,  did  we  not  urge  you  firs'  to  orgsnize, 
and  then  in  vour  Local.  National  and  International  Unions  which  have  not  yet  joinrd  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  to  do  so  witnout  further  delay.     Wage-workers  of  America,  unite  ! 

Yours  fraternally. 


SAMUEL  GUMPEKS.  Pre^iH/nt. 


JAMES  DUNCAN,  First  yicc-President. 
JOHN  yilTCUVAAj,  Second  yice-Prcsidcnt. 
JAMES  O'CONXKLL.  Third  yiccPraidait. 
MAX  MORRIS. /-"Kr/*  yicc-Prcsidciil. 
THOS.   I.  KIIJD.  Fifth  Vice-President. 
D.  A.  HAYES,  Sixth  yice-Presidoil. 
JOHN  B.  LENNON,  Treasurer. 


KR A NK   M n K K I S( » X ,  Secret aiv. 

(4oJ 


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Manuals  of  Comiuou  Procedure,  giving  directions  for  opening  and  closing  meetings, 
installatiou  of  Officers,  Initiation  of  Members,  etc $5  00 

CPIARTER    OUTFIT    5  00 

\  Charter  Outfit  consists  of  one  set  of  Books — Ledger,  Day  Book,  Minute-  Book, 
Treasurer's  Account  Book,  Treasurer's  Receipt  Book,  Secretary's  Order  Book,  one 
Seal,  seven  Constitutions,  A.  F.  of  L. ;  seven  Cetificates  of  Membership,  seven  Mem- 
bership and  Working  Cards,  one  quire  of  Official  Note  Paper,  one  copy  of  the  Offi- 
cial  Proceedings  of  Convention,   and  one  copy  of  History  of  Trade  Unions. 


Seal   ?2  oO 

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LABOR    LITERATURE. 

HISTORY  OF  TRADE  UNIONS.  Bv  Wm- 
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lnO,  '^■l  0(1. 

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WHAT  DOES  LABOR  WANT?  By  Samnel 
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SAMUEL  GOMPERS,  President. 


subscribe: 


FOR    THE 


American  Federationisi 

OFFICIAL  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  INTERESTS  AND  VOICING  THE  DE 

MANDS  OF  THE  TRADE  UNION  MOVEMENT. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

The  American   Federation   of   Laboi 

423-425  G  STREET,  N.  W.  WASHINGTON,  D.  C 


Samuel  Gompers,  Editor 

All  communications  relating  to  finances  anc 
'bscpiptions,  should  be  addressed  to 

FRANK  MORRISON,  Secretary 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


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